Flashbacks: Aftershocks (season 2, ep 12)
by Ninetailsjinx
Summary: Flashback to the end of season two: Terra has teamed up with Slade and is hunting down the Titans one by one; we saw them defeated, but how did they survive? Also: how do Raven's healing powers work? How does Beast Boy react to his lady love's betrayal? Plenty of RobXStar fluff! Finale of Part I posted.
1. Chap 1: Saving Starfire

**Context: Terra has aligned herself with Slade and is hunting the Titans down one by one. Seconds before my story starts, she hurtled a boulder at our favorite Boy Wonder, but Starfire spotted the rocky missile just in time to pull Robin out of the way-and accidentally put herself right in the boulder's path.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans.**

_Rock Your World_

Robin watched in shock as Starfire's inert body tumbled over the cliff.

"Starfire!" He screamed helplessly, all but forgetting the geomancer floating threateningly behind him.

His teammate's limp form struck the layers of the cliff face once—twice—before smacking the water's surface some hundred or so feet below and sinking beneath the river current.

Terra laughed behind him, her voice low, smug, and totally absent of remorse.

"We'll finish this later," Robin said, his keen eyes already searching for the best path down.

"You can bet we will. But don't worry; I'll give you some time to mourn your little girlfriend before I find you again."

Robin hopped down to the next level and called up to his former teammate, hovering on a rock and well out of reach. "For your sake you'd better hope there's no reason to mourn," he shot back.

She simply laughed and glided away.

Forgetting Slade's apprentice for the moment, Robin leapt down, jumping from ledge to ledge and trying to reach the forest floor as quickly as possible.

His boots hit the soft clay of the muddy river bank with a squelching noise and he took off in a sprint. He searched for any sign of his friend and peeled away several layers of clothing that would weigh him down in the water should he need to swim. Several hundred yards later, his cape, tunic, utility belt and gloves were dispersed along the bank, marking a colorful trail behind him.

Those first few desperate minutes yielded nothing but stomach-churning panic, a feeling that did not abate when he spotted a streak of red bobbing up and down in the current.

"Star!" Robin called. No response.

He dove into the racing current and gasped as the freezing water seeped through his remaining clothes. He swam over to Starfire, who floated face down in the water, and hooked an arm around her waist, then started fighting his way back to the bank.

Exhausted, he grasped onto a branch sticking out from a dying tree log half washed up on shore. The branch snapped and he almost lost his grip on Starfire, but he yanked her back against him at the last second. He grabbed a hold of a passing rock and pulled the two of them to the other side. With a final burst of strength, he hauled himself onto the shore and dragged Starfire with him.

_"Super strength would be great right now," _he thought sardonically. He didn't allow himself the second he wanted to catch his breath, but immediately began checking on his unconscious companion, heedless of the gravel digging into his knees as he knelt beside her.

_"She isn't breathing,"_ he realized. He set his lips on her purpled cold ones and fervently tried to breathe air back into her lungs. _"I don't get it; she can fly through space without so much as a gas tank, but she gets knocked into a body of water and suddenly she can't function without oxygen?"_ he pondered, frustrated. He pulled away from her and started pressing on her chest in staccato pushes in an attempt to make her heart start beating again.

"Come on, Star!" Robin shouted again, then started breathing air into her mouth once more. Robin worriedly noted the deathly pale-gray tone of her skin beneath the dappled shade provided by the trees overhead. Her skin felt clammy beneath his bare fingers, and her lips felt ice-cold and ice-hard—not at all warm and soft like he'd thought they would be.

She remained stubbornly unresponsive under his frustrated ministrations, and Robin began to give into to the panic that threatened to overwhelm him. Tears leaked down his cheeks and his voice cracked as he pleaded with her. "Starfire, wake up," he said, pushing down on her chest once more in jerky movements, "You can't be—not after you took that boulder for me. I should be the one lying here." He beat a fist on her chest weakly, "Not you, Starfire."

He pulled her into his arms, her back bowed across his thighs, her neck carefully cradled in the crook of his elbow. He rocked back and forth, crying silently and cursing his slow reflexes.

A quiet cough disturbed his grieving, and he felt Starfire stir.

"Star?"

Her eyes fluttered open and she coughed violently, sitting up to spit the river water from her lungs onto the sand. Robin pulled her close to his chest and sank his bottom to the ground so Starfire fell into his lap.

"Starfire I'm so glad you're—I was afraid you were—but now you're—" he choked. Starfire laughed despite her shivering.

"I am 'the okay,' Robin," she reassured him. "Are you?"

Robin looked at her, confused. _"She's the one who just fell off a cliff and almost drowned; why is she worried about me?"_ "Yeah, Star, I'm fine. Why do you ask?" He started rubbing his hands on her frigid limbs to help the circulation.

"Your lips are blue, and you seem to have lost some of your clothing," she blushed, bringing some color back to her pale pallor.

Robin suddenly became embarrassingly aware of his naked chest, where one of Starfire's shoulders rested. He reached up instinctively to check that his mask remained fixed to his face, and sighed in relief when he touched the familiar strip of black material covering his eyes.

Starfire continued. "And the last thing I remember was being hit by a boulder. Unless the physics on Earth affect meteor showers differently than on Tameran, I would posit Terra is to blame. Please, tell me what happened."

Robin's joyful expression fell and he dropped his hands. "Terra was here," he confirmed. "And that boulder was meant for me. You shouldn't have pushed me out of the way; you were almost killed," he admonished.

Starfire stood, her expression resolute despite his grimace. "And it most certainly would have killed you," she countered. "Tameranians can endure harsh conditions, remember? So do not be angry with me for doing what I could to protect you."

She paused for his response, _"but I don't want to start a fight," _Robin thought, so he stayed silent and waited for her to repeat her question.

"What exactly happened after I—after the boulder?"

Robin felt his top lip twitch up into his classic smirk. He hopped up and started walking back toward the fallen pieces of his uniform on the river bank. "My lips are blue because I saved you from drowning and the water is frigid," he started, pausing to pick up the first of his green gloves, then the second a few feet away. "My clothes are missing because they would have made swimming harder so I decided to just take them off," he bent down to grab his utility belt, "And am I to understand that if you hadn't been able to take that shot without it killing you then you would've let it hit me?"

"No, but—" Starfire protested.

"Then you know how I feel," he smiled, pointing his fisted glove at her comically so that droplets of water flicked onto her. She opened her mouth to continue arguing, but quieted when Robin slipped an empty hand into hers. "I'm really glad you're okay, Star," he said.

She picked up his tunic and handed it to him. "Thank you for coming after me," she replied. Robin squeezed her hand tightly before releasing it to tug the tunic back over his wet, white, lean torso. "Now will we meet up with our friends and go after Terra?"

Robin blanched. "The others!" he panicked.

Starfire gasped, her eyes widening. "Do you think they have been attacked as well?"

"I think there's a chance of it," Robin said. "Where's your communicator?" He asked. She reached for it but only touched on empty space. _"Lost in the fall."_ Thankfully his lay only a few dozen feet away. He grabbed it and dashed to his cape lying on the ground as he flipped it open. "Cyborg! Beast Boy! Raven!" he shouted.

At first his communicator only picked up static, then the sound crackled as a voice struggled to break through: "Help!"

**And end chapter one. **

**Thanks for reading!**

******P.S., I'm a bit discouraged that I haven't heard much feedback for this story yet, so if you could please give me a simple "Like" or "Dislike" I'd really appreciate it-and I won't bother you with a follow-up message either, so don't worry about that. Thanks again!**


	2. Chap 2: Communiqué Conundrum

**Thanks to everyone who read/favorited/followed my story-it really makes me feel like Starfire the first time she discovered the delightful yellow beverage of mustard. : D Without further ado, here is the second chapter.**_  
_

_Rock Your World, Chapter II_

Cyborg's voice sounded almost immediately, but the screen on the communicator remained black. "Where ya been, man? I've been trying to contact you for a while, now."

"Dealing with Terra," Robin said through gritted teeth.

"Hey, us too!" A high-pitched voice chirped in the background.

"Beast Boy? Why can't I see you?"

"Cause underground caves don't exactly come with flashlights," Cyborg quipped. "And my power level's too low to handle all but the essentials."

"Wait a sec, I got this," Beast Boy shouted happily.

A faint green glow lit up the side of Cyborg's now grinning face. "Alright man, nice!"

"What just happened?" Robin asked.

"BB just changed into some kind of glowy thing. I don't wanna touch it, but it lights up the place just fine."

"Does it have any kind of exit in the back?"

"It's not that kind of cave, man. Terra opened up a fault line inside the factory and knocked me and Grass Stain in it, then sealed the ground back up like a zip-loc baggy. The crevice she created bottomed out in some kind natural air pocket, which saved us from being squished, but it's barely big enough for the two of us, so before you ask, that's exactly why B hasn't gone all T-Rex to break us out."

"I would assume you have tried to dislodge the structure as well, Cyborg. Have your cannons been disabled?" Starfire inquired.

"Nah, but from what my sensors tell me, the stone around us is very unstable; one imprecise blast and we'd be flattened," Cyborg told her.

"Sounds like you could use a hand," Robin said. "I'm sending Starfire to you; what's your location?"

"Gimme a minute," Cyborg responded. The screen tilted upward, focusing on Cyborg's metallic fingers and the occasional thumb as he maneuvered one of the features on the communicator's main menu. "Uploading coordinates now."

The glow disappeared and Beast Boy's voice sounded again. "Heard anything from Rae?"

"I'm going after her," Robin responded. "Chances are, she received a visit from Terra same as us, but she hasn't called for back-up or answered our calls. Something's up and I'm going to find out what."

"And when you find her?" Beast Boy prodded.

"We'll regroup tonight in the tunnel beneath the Tower."

"Ugh," the changeling groaned. "I'm sick of being surrounded by rock. Why can't we just sleep in the Tower and attack Slade tomorrow; it's not like he's leaving anytime soon."

"Slade and Terra think most of the Titans have been taken care of, and I'm not ready to correct that presumption just yet. We should assume Slade's watching to see if we survived, so the Tower's out." Robin paused. _"Call me paranoid, but don't say I don't have a reason to be," _thought. _"If only the others felt the same."_ "I don't think I have to tell you discretion is of the utmost importance on the return trip, do I?"

Cyborg answered for the group's youngest member. "Don't worry, Rob, I'll keep the little snot quiet."

"Thanks, Cyborg. Starfire's on her way A-SAP. For my part, what's Raven's last known location?"

"Same place she chased Overload to. After that we lose signal."

"Nasty coincidence," Robin remarked darkly.

"My thoughts exactly."

A soft blip sounded to signal receipt of Cyborg and Beast Boy's location.

"That's our cue. See you guys in a few hours." Robin said.

"Just don't get lost, Star," Cyborg joked, then signed out.

"You okay to go and get them?" Robin asked. He only latently realized that the question was more or less rhetorical since he had already volunteered the alien woman's next actions.

She placed her fingers over his as he handed her the comm, clasping the gadget tightly. "Yes," she answered, and worried at her bottom lip. "What happens if Terra finds you before you and Raven find us?" She asked, eyebrows furrowed. "You will not be able to call for help."

"I'll be fine, Star. Besides, you need this more than I do. For whatever reason, Raven's communicator isn't working, but you need this to find the guys—we don't know how much air they have left, so we can't afford to waste time."

Starfire took the comm and squared her shoulders. "By which route will you be traveling in your search for friend Raven?"

"I'll stay off of the roads as much as possible—which shouldn't be too difficult since both Cinderblock and Overload were out in the middle of nowhere—so just go as the crow flies."

She looked at him incredulously.

"It's an expression. Erm—just fly in a straight line from here directly to the plant Raven tracked Overload to."

"If you do not return by dusk I will look for you there."

Robin rested his forehead against hers and wrapped his hands around her triceps. "Let's just hope it doesn't come to that." He paused, drinking in the warmth that radiated from her, the beauty of her eyes. _"Cause I don't want to give Terra another shot at you."_ "Wanna give me a lift back up to my bike?" He asked, grinning.

Starfire returned his smile, then stood up and fastened Robin's communicator to the back of her belt. She offered him her hands and he placed them in her grasp, a sign of his trust in the young Tameranean woman.

Starfire flew them up to the cliff and to the R-Cycle. She set Robin down and pulled him in for a lung-crushing hug. "Oh, Robin, you must be careful! Please say you will be."

Silence. Starfire released Robin and looked to see him gasping for breath. "I—will Star—just—don't—kill me first," he wheezed.

"Oh I am sorry, friend," she apologized and let go, embarrassed.

"S'alright," he recovered. "Just save your strength for Beast Boy and Cyborg," he sent one last smile her way, then put on his helmet, straddled the bike and turned on the engine."

"Watch yourself," he warned, and sped away.

Starfire didn't waste another moment. _"Discretion,"_ she reminded herself, then flew straight up into the air and didn't stop until she passed through the clouds. She cast an absent-minded look in the direction Robin had departed, then soared off to free her friends, eyes darting between the opaque sky in front of her and the screen in her hands.

**Tune in for Beast Boy and Cyborg's rescue next chapter! And if you liked this fill-in-the-blanks story, check out my other Flashbacks story on Nevermore, featuring Raven and RobxStar. Thanks again for reading, and please review!**


	3. Chap 3: Memorial Misery

**Welcome back! Let's find out what the boys have been up to, eh?**

_Rock Your World, Chapter 3_

The memory played on a loop in Beast Boy's mind.

_"Hope you're not expecting a goodbye kiss,"_ she'd mocked. He'd never known her to have such a malicious smile.

_"Terra, you can't," _he'd pleaded. But he'd seen her cold eyes and knew her stone heart; she'd already sent Cyborg into the crack she'd split into the Earth, and knew he would soon follow.

_"Watch me," _she'd said.

He fell into the abyss, distraught and ashamed.

_"Hope you're not expecting a goodbye kiss."_

Thankfully someone had answered Cyborg's SOS, _"it'd be even worse to die in a warehouse knowing we'd lost to that stinky, wailing, nuclear-waste-eating monster, Plasmus."_

Beast Boy looked to the opposite side of the narrow pit they'd fallen into, where Cyborg stood, trying to repair the damage he'd suffered during the fall with the mini-torch he kept in his index finger and sheer determination. Lost in concentration, the half-robot had fallen completely silent after Robin's call, focused on fixing his sparking circuits as best he could without the benefit of the fully equipped lab he kept at the Tower.

Leaving Beast Boy to his thoughts.

_"Hope you weren't expecting a good bye kiss," _Terra taunted him.

_"Robin always says I have weak reflexes," _he berated himself. _"A bird, a fly, a pterodactyl—anything would have been better than just falling and letting myself get trapped in here." _Except he hadn't had time to think what animal he could turn into that would help him save the day. _"But I've had plenty of time to think now, and I still have no idea what I could've done." _Even if he had escaped, he still had one teammate down and Terra and Plasmus yet to face. _"I probably couldn't have done anything, anyway," _he thought balefully. _"I guess me n' Cy'll just have to wait for Star to come get us."_

_"Watch me."_

_Clang!_

Beast Boy's pointed ears twitched. "You hear that?" He asked Cyborg. He made certain to keep his question hopeful and free of the despair plaguing him, just as he had during the conversation with Robin and Star earlier.

"Now that you point it out, yeah," the cybernetic teen replied. The electrical flickers abated, indicating Cyborg had ceased his tinkering, and Beast Boy saw his red robotic eye shift to focus on the faint noise above them.

The changeling morphed into a wolf and strained his ears. The layers of rock muffled the sound above him, but he could just barely make out the soft patter of footsteps moving unsteadily in their direction.

Beast Boy transformed back into his human form. "Think it's Star?"

"Could be. Or it could be Terra coming back to finish us off."

Beast Boy didn't reply, his throat suddenly dry.

"Friends?" Starfire's voice called; the intonation of her voice suggested she was shouting, though she sounded soft through the bed rock.

"Down here, Star!" Cyborg answered, relieved.

"Cyborg!" Starfire sounded louder as she presumably made her way closer to the trapped Titans.

Beast Boy climbed up to the highest point in the crevice before the rock closed up again and began beating on the rock's surface, which thumped dully. "Starfire!"

"I hear you, friend Beast Boy," Starfire replied, her voice bubbly and high. The rock vibrated above Beast Boy's hands and he heard a grunt from the other side.

"Hold on, Star, hold on!" Cyborg yelled, panicked. The movement stopped. "The rock is very unstable. So I need you to hit very specific pressure points or else you're gonna cause a cave-in."

"Please direct my movements," Starfire answered.

"Is there anything we can do from down here, Cy?" Beast Boy asked.

"Once she gets a little closer, yeah. I've already made predictions about what needs to be moved where to avoid a collapse, but the pressure needs to come from above, not below. Right now if we move anything the rock's gonna come down on us 'cause that's the only place it can go. I can tell Starfire what to do from up there, but for now, I need you to sit tight."

"Sure," Beast Boy agreed. His ears drooped as the sense of uselessness overwhelmed him once more. _"Couldn't do anything to help Terra, couldn't do anything to stop her, can't do anything to get us out."_

Cyborg stepped back several feet, his robotic limbs echoing against the rocky ground as they made contact. He called up to Starfire. "When I say 'now,' blast a starbolt from here," a metallic clanking sound signaled Cyborg moving forward, past Beast Boy and to the opposite end of the crevice. "To here. But only down a couple of feet. Got it?"

"Yes, I have it," Starfire answered.

"Now!" Cyborg yelled.

A second of silence, then Beast Boy heard a harsh "hah" of exertion and a heavy thump above him that ranged from the two points Cyborg had called out. Rock cracked above him and a few pebbles fell from the ceiling.

"What's it look like, Star?"

"I have decimated most of the rock that fell within my line of sight, down to the level you indicated."

"Perfect. Now pick up any loose rock in that line that you see and do it again." Another grunt, another pound, more cracks and more falling pebbles. "Again." Grunt, pound, cracks, pebbles.

The process continued painstakingly slow so as to avoid disturbing the bedrock as much as possible, but eventually, Beast Boy heard some shifting directly above the ceiling.

"You're close, real close. Now back up; I'ma blast us the rest of the way through."

The shifting ceased. "The way is clear."

"Move back, BB," Cyborg warned.

The changeling did as instructed and winced as blue light flooded the pitch-black crevice. When Beast Boy's vision refocused, he recognized his teammate's sonic cannon, as well as the azure glow that signaled its charge.

"Booyah!" Cyborg yelled out as waves of aural energy hit the last layer of rock. The stone broke apart as the vibrations struck them and crumbled to the ground, revealing a large shaft of bright light.

"Sweet, fresh air!" BB cried out in relief. He transformed into a bird and passed through the newly unearthed opening, the half-robot teen close behind him.

"Alright Starfire!" Cyborg exclaimed proudly as he clambered out.

Starfire grinned shyly, the fingers of her right hand wrapped around the opposite elbow. "It was of little difficulty."

"So what's next?" Beast Boy asked.

"We are to meet Robin and Raven in the underground tunnel. Please, are the both of you undamaged?"

"I'm fine, but Cy's gonna have to use Tameran Airlines today considering what Slade's new apprentice did to the T-Car earlier," Beast Boy said.

"Tameran Airlines?" Starfire asked quizzically.

"It's another one of BB's not-funny jokes," Cyborg explained. "He means you're gonna have to fly me, if that's ok. Otherwise I'm stuck walking."

"I would be glad to transport you, friend Cyborg," the alien woman smiled. "We will see you back at the tunnel?" She asked Beast Boy.

"Sure thing," he grinned, and without another word, he jumped into the air and transformed into a falcon, left alone once more with Terra's last words running through his head.

_"Hope you weren't expecting a goodbye kiss."_

_"It's better this way," _he'd tried to convince himself: at least he didn't have to fake a smile while in animal form.

_"Terra, you can't."_

He knew he didn't actually have to put up a front at all, that his teammates would have understood his unspoken grief no problem.

_"Watch me."_

But the idea of dropping the spastic Beast Boy façade and expressing himself so seriously—exposing his shame and remorse to those closest to him—seemed far more difficult than just pasting on another smile.

_"Watch me," _Terra said, continually smirking at him from his memory.

_"Watch me."_

**So tell me, what do you think? Follow or favorite to receive notifications of updates!**


	4. Chap 4: Bereaving Birds

**It looks like this is turning into a weekly update story. Sooo tune in next Wednesday? Anyway, here's part four of ****_Rock Your World._**

Beast Boy counted the steady _drip drip_ of water as it fell from stalactite to stalagmite in the dark tunnel beneath the Tower.

_"1287."_

Maybe if he distracted himself enough he'd stop thinking about Terra, even for a few minutes.

_"1288."_ He'd tried talking to Star, but she was busy fretting about Robin, wringing her hands and pacing along the same 100 or so foot stretch of tunnel for what seemed like hours.

_"1289."_ And Cyborg, ever resourceful, had managed to make a fire from some trash discarded in a dumpster that hid the secret tunnel entrance by which the three of them had entered in the city. After they arrived, he promptly ignited it with sparks from his berserking robotic leg and what little oil he could spare.

_"1290."_

But that left Beast Boy with nothing to keep himself occupied, and if he kept thinking about Terra he'd go crazy.

_"1921."_ Like when he and Cyborg had been stuck in that crevice, no light, no chance of escape unaided, and surrounded, by the earth Terra so loved and commanded. _"Just like now."_

_"1922."_ They'd just sat there in the cave, thinking and trying to conserve oxygen.

_"1923."_ He'd passed much of the time trying to justify Terra's actions, considering the most elaborate and meanest of plausible motives behind her betrayal. _"Cause what if Terra had been forced into being Slade's apprentice same as Robin?" _Then she could come back to the Titans. Back to him.

_"1924."_ Except Robin hadn't taunted them, hadn't had that look of sadistic satisfaction on his face as he single-handedly defeated each of his teammates. His friends.

_"9125."_ There hadn't been any sign of coercion or uncertainty in Terra's case. Could it really be as simple as it seemed? That Terra truly hated the Titans enough to kill them? To kill him?

_"9126."_ What if she didn't really want to hurt any of them? She totally kicked his butt and could've killed him way worse than any of his video game avatars had ever died, but she'd settled with sealing him up in a cave, wholly unharmed, and she hadn't even touched Robin or Raven.

_"9127."_ But she had tossed Starfire off of a cliff, _"after KOing her so she almost drowned," _he reminded himself._ "Plus, Terra probably didn't even know about that air pocket. It was just dumb luck that saw us into safety, not any kind of imagined good will."_

_"7128."_ Come to think of it, that boulder she'd chucked at Star had been meant for Robin, and it would've done much worse than a concussion to his human body.

_"7129."_ And something had to be keeping Raven away.

_"None of this makes any sense!"_ He shouted mentally, grasping at the roots of his emerald-colored hair and tugging as though he'd be able to reach his confused, hurting thoughts and rip them out.

"You all right, B?" Cyborg asked, peeking out of the corner of his red eye as he stoked the fire with a rusted pipe.

"Yeah, just lost count," he mumbled miserably.

Cyborg put down pipe and stood. Beast Boy prepared himself for the question he saw in his friend's his eyes, but sighed in relief when the half-robot teen's communicator started crackling.

"Robin?" Starfire piped up. She froze mid-pace and answered the call on the communicator held tightly in her own grasp.

Cyborg answered his at the same time. "Yo, this is Cyborg, what's up?" The crackling intensified for a few tense seconds, then a voice rang loud and clear.

"Stupid technology," Raven's drawling voice complained. "He—o?"

Beast Boy surprised himself as a wide smile—a genuine smile—surreptitiously spread across his features.

"Raven? Can you hear me? I don't have a video image and the audio is sketchy," Cyborg replied.

"Apparently your fancy walkie-talkies don't do so well in mud."

"Mud?" Cyborg repeated.

"I've been trying to contact anyone for hours but the thing hasn't been working. Where have you all been?"

"Terra," Beast Boy said, walking toward Cyborg.

"Was that Beast Boy?" Raven asked.

"Yeah, Star's here, too."

"Where is Robin?" Starfire asked, concern evident in her voice.

"Robin? Not with me."

"What do you mean Robin is not with you. He must be! He left to find you after Terra found us and—"

"Slow down, Starfire," Raven interrupted. "You aren't making any sense. Are you saying Terra attacked everyone?"

"Yes!" Starfire responded exasperatedly. "She attacked Robin and I and trapped Beast Boy and Cyborg. We could not contact you so Robin left to find you while I aided the others. But he did not find you which means he is still out there looking, or—" she gasped. "Hurt and unable to contact us."

"Calm down, I'm sure he's fine," Cyborg said.

"But he should have returned ages ago!" Starfire whimpered.

"Is he not answering his communicator?" the empath asked.

"Robin gave me his when mine fell in the river," Starfire answered, sounding guilty.

"He's probably still out looking for Raven," Cyborg consoled her. "You know how he gets when he as a goal in mind; he loses track of time."

"I don't know, man," Beast Boy disagreed. "Terra's out for blood, and she hasn't had a taste of Robin's yet."

"We must go out and search for him," Starfire said, anxious expression replaced by one of steely resolve.

"Robin told us to lay low—not to call attention to ourselves," Cyborg responded uneasily, clearly conflicted. "And I'm hardly more useful than a night light right now." He pointed out, looking at the sparking circuits on his leg.

"I've been searching for everyone for hours," Raven interjected. "Any place someone might have gone. No sign of Robin anywhere."

"You might have just missed him," Cyborg said. "And I doubt he'd leave a trace anyhow."

Starfire turned toward the exit.

"Where are you going?" Beast Boy asked.

"To find Robin. Raven? Be prepared to heal him if necessary."

"Do you have any idea where he is?" Raven asked. "I'll meet you there."

Starfire nodded gratefully. "He went to the sanitation facility in search of you."

"That's where Terra attacked me," Raven said, and Starfire recognized an edge of panic in her voice. "On my way," she said and ended the call.

"I'll head out, too," Beast Boy offered from Cyborg's communicator. A green eagle joined Starfire as she started gliding toward the city-side exit.

"Guess I'll wait here in case he comes back," Cyborg added, sounding somewhat rueful.

"Call us if he returns," Starfire said, then ended the call as well. "Beast Boy," she started, and turned toward the bird soaring beside her. "I will retrace Robin's route from where we departed, but it would be best if you flew directly there—as the crow flies—to cover more ground."

They flew to the tunnel's exit in silence, but reached the end in due time. Starfire touched lightly upon the ground and reached her hand out to the control panel that would open up the exit Cyborg had installed when the team was still new. She hesitated, her fingers shaking as they hovered above the panel's plastic surface. Beast Boy turned back into his human form and placed a comforting hand on her back.

"Hey," he whispered. "We'll find him. It's Robin we're talking about, remember?"

Starfire offered him a forced smile before pulling him into an unexpected hug. "Be careful, my friend," she whispered. "And stay hidden."

**I guess the last couple of chapters have been super dark-which makes sense considering the circumstances, but if you've watched season two then you know there's at least a happy ending! Thanks for the reviews, favorites, and follows, and to Sailor Sea, you'll learn how Raven escaped a couple of chapters from now, which'll have some touching, some hilarious BBxRae moments, I can promise.**


	5. Chap 5: Faulty Focus

**Welcome back! **

**Ok I'm super nervous about this chapter-I just could not figure out the best way to capture Robin's disoriented thoughts or describe Raven's powers. But it's Wednesday and I promised another chapter, so let me know how I did and what I can do to fix it, eh?**

_Rock Your World, Chapter 5_**  
**

Robin gradually awakened, beckoned to the surface of consciousness by a pain worse than any he'd suffered before. _"I'd almost rather get shot by the Joker again," _he thought groggily. _"At least Batman couldn't fire me this time."_ He coughed and something warm and wet leaked onto his cheek and he nearly cried out from the discomfort in his ribs. But his chest wasn't the only thing ailing him.

The pain filled his head, wrapped around his shoulder, collarbone and ribcage like a fiery whip. It sat on his muscles and thumped dully on them as the blood pulsated through his veins and out of his mouth or into his lungs. It laughed at him through the ringing in his ears, a relentless, malicious beat that at once chased him into blissful oblivion and forced him into cruel wakefulness.

_"What happened?" _he wondered. Memories of his last few hours of consciousness flashed past.

Starfire, falling over a cliff.

Beast Boy and Cyborg, calling for help.

Searching for Raven.

Terra.

Terra.

Terra.

_"What about Terra?"_

Terra laughing, hitting, punching, blocking, faltering, insulting.

Terra killing him. Terra taking his cape and badge. Terra being yelled at by Slade, dropping something and running away.

_"Except I'm not dead."_

He couldn't move, could barely breathe, could only concentrate on not dying and wait for someone to find him or finishhim_._

He didn't have to wait long at least.

Not long after he awoke, his ears picked up on the desperate cries of one of his fellow Titans.

"Robin!" A high-pitched voice screamed. It sounded full of panic, high-pitched and familiar but unrecognizable at first. Yet the inherent tone of the feminine voice evoked a calmness and sense of companionship in him.

_"Starfire," _he realized.

The Titan leader couldn't open his eyes, but he could hear the loud plop of the alien woman's maladroit landing as she stumbled to the ground and sprinted toward him.

"Meet me outside the sanitation facility," she yelled, her voice growing louder as she came closer. "I've found him, and he is badly damaged." A brusque reply followed. Robin couldn't identify the other person or their response, but he hoped it was Raven confirming an immediate arrival.

TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT TTTTTT

Starfire collapsed to her knees, nearly overwhelmed by a helplessness and desperation that threatened to consume her. She reached out to touch him, but pulled her trembling hands and twitching fingers back at the last moment, afraid to hurt him further. She breathed a sigh of relief as she witnessed Robin struggling with a belabored breath.

_"There is still hope, then," _Starfire thought. _"For he is still alive."_

"Robin? Robin, can you hear me?" She asked. A gurgling sound and some trickling blood from his mouth served as his response. "Raven is on her way, Robin; she will heal you and all will be the okay. Hold on for a few more minutes, please." She clutched at her—his—communicator. "Raven, where are you—you must hurry!"

No response. But perhaps that was a good sign; Raven couldn't receive calls while traveling in her shadow form, so the silence surely indicated she was on her way. _"Right?"_

"You promised you would not be harmed," she reminded him. "You must stay with us, you must. You would not lie to me, correct?"

Something moved out of the corner of Starfire's eye. She whirled around with bared teeth and fiercely glowing fists and eyes. An apparition of some sort rose from the ground and formed a vague aquiline shape, then resolved itself into Raven's corporeal form.

"It's me, Star—calm down," Raven said after releasing the shadows surrounding her. She sprinted over and hissed as she assessed her leader's injuries, then looked around their surroundings in search of unwanted observers.

Starfire sniffed at the faint earthy scent she detected in the air as the sorceress kneeled over her charge. A quick observation revealed that the mud her teammate had complained of during her earlier transmission was absent on her clothing and skin. _"What happened to her?"_ She wondered.

"We need to move him somewhere safe before I start the healing," Raven said. "But first I need to stabilize him." She bent down and pointed to the blood running down the corner of his mouth. "Punctured lung. I'll take care of that and then we'll bring him back to the tunnel."

Starfire drew her hands together and held them to her chest. "Is there anything I can do to help?" She asked in an earnest voice.

Raven extended her arm out and pointed to her right. "Move away as far as you can without losing sight of us."

Starfire opened her mouth to argue, but the empath interrupted.

"I need to be able to concentrate, and right now, your emotions make me want to cry. Which we both know I don't do," she explained through gritted teeth. "Besides, we need a look out; we have no idea where Terra is right now."

The alien princess pursed her lips but immediately began walking in the other direction, resigned.

TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT TTTTTT

Raven focused on the weak form in front of her. His clothing had been ripped in all manner of places, revealing a series of cuts both deep and shallow and all covered in dark smears that doubtlessly consisted of dirt and blood. Some of the compartments on his utility belt had been compressed or shredded, and a few of the connectors looked so cracked they would probably fall apart soon. His boots remained in decent shape, the steel toes shining dully in the moonlight, and his high-density, polymerized, nearly indestructible titanium cape lay curiously unclasped and strewn uselessly beside his body, though otherwise in seemingly perfect condition. _"Interesting," _she thought, and gathered the black material close to her. _"It'll make a good wrap if someone can manage to cut it into strips."_

She kneeled down beside him. _"His insignia's missing," _she noted. _"No,"_ she corrected herself as she took a closer look at the ruined stitching where the black and yellow "R" usually sat, _"taken." _But she'd think about that later.

Robin himself looked every bit as torn up as his costume. He breathed shallowly, but otherwise remained still, his face contorted in an excruciating expression, his eyes swollen shut. _"If I couldn't feel his pain I wouldn't even know he was conscious right now." _But somehow he'd managed to stir, if only barely, _"Probably fighting to keep Slade from another victory."_

The teenaged sorceress moved her hands to her leader's chest and illuminated her palms with blue healing energy. She fought to keep her muscles and expression rigid as Robin's pain flared up inside her temporarily—a helpful though agonizing side effect of her empathic abilities that effectively pin-pointed exactly where her target needed healed. Her lungs burned as his burned, and she almost winced as she felt a broken rib poke the delicate organ behind it, but bit her tongue to keep it in.

_"Might as well take care of that right now, too," _she decided. Raven felt her ribs split as she moved on to Robin's chest, and she had to fight the instinct to assess her own damage, to remember that the feeling was only an illusion and not reflective of any personal damage, _"even if it does feel like my bones are shattering."_ The pain gradually receded as the broken pieces knit themselves together and Robin's lung emptied of blood, once again whole and fully functioning. With the worst of the discomfort gone and his breathing no longer labored, Raven felt Robin fall into a reluctant state of unconsciousness.

Raven glided her hands over Robin's body once more and sensed pain in his head. _"Fractured skull, dislocated jaw," _she realized, and moved on to his collarbone, _"broken," _shoulders, _"dislocated," _torso, _"internally bleeding,"_ pelvis, _"bruised tailbone," _legs, _"one fractured femur," _and ankle, _"sprained. But that can all wait until we're safe in the tunnel."_

"Starfire," she called out. The Tameranian sprinted over to her friends. _"Wait. Sprinted?" _Raven raised an eyebrow. _"Why isn't she flying?"_ She thought impatiently.

"I need you to take him back," Raven said.

Starfire's face took on an expression of panic, her mouth open and her eyes wide. "But I might damage him further," she protested.

"I've taken care of the most pressing concerns, but there's still a lot more to do, and I need to conserve my energy." She tossed an uncertain glance at her fellow Titan, deep in the throes of unconsciousness. "He's asleep for now and should stay that way for a while. Think you can handle it?"

TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT TTTTTT

_"Not if I cannot fly," _Starfire thought. _"But what else can I do?"_

Starfire's anxious gaze met Raven's tired eyes as the teenaged sorceress turned to the Tameranian princess and raised Robin's limp body with her telekinesis. Starfire noted gratefully that her team mate kept his head and neck well-supported even as he floated mid-air.

"Stop worrying, I don't have time for it," she said brusquely. "He's asleep so he won't feel a thing; you couldn't hurt him any worse unless you dropped him." Raven lowered him to the level of Starfire's chest, and the alien woman instinctively reached out to take him. Robin's body slumped in her arms momentarily as she adjusted to his sudden weight. _"Not only do I lack the joy required for flight,"_ she realized, _"but the boundless confidence which powers my uncanny strength has deserted me as well?"_

The empath's eyes softened and she stepped forward, closing the distance between herself and her teammates. She tenderly adjusted the Boy Wonder's position so that his head lay in the crook of Starfire's shoulder, then stepped back. "I'll see you soon," she said before phasing through the ground in a tar-like puddle of black.


	6. Chap 6: Pilfering Provisions

**After some consideration, I decided this chapter should precede Starfire's flight back to the tunnel, so I'm switching them. Sorry for the confusion!**

_Rock Your World, Chapter 7_

Raven phased through the floor of one of Jump City Memorial Hospital's many storage rooms.

_"Sick people and rubbing alcohol," _she thought, preparing her nose for the inevitable onslaught of unpleasant odors. _"My favorite."_

She glanced to the left, the right, in front of and behind her before making herself corporeal, thankful that the fluorescent lighting revealed the well-stocked room to be empty. The sorceress pulled her communicator out and sent a call to Cyborg.

"I heard the call from Starfire," Cyborg answered. Raven wrinkled her nose at the lack of video connection, but felt relieved that at least the audio line had held up. "Does that mean you and B are on your way back?"

"I can't speak for Beast Boy—although I hope he would have turned back to the tunnel after hearing we found Robin—but I'm at the hospital to pick up some supplies."

Cyborg hissed. "Our boy's that bad, huh?"

"Worse," Raven answered, careful to keep her voice even. "What do we have in the way of resources? I'd imagine we have some things already prepared or else Robin wouldn't have sent you all there when he left to find me."

"You'd be correct in your imaginings; this is our official tornado retreat, after all, furnished to satisfy all your minimal needs. I'ma warn you, though, I had to forego some of the more elaborate niceties since they're stored directly beneath the Tower's base and require digital passwords to access."

"Did you leave the secret code in your room or something?" She asked sardonically.

"We're supposed to be dead, remember?" Cyborg retorted. "I couldn't risk that Slade isn't monitoring the Tower."

"Good point," Raven conceded.

"I woulda done this earlier but I figured we'd end up at one of the hideouts before the night's end."

"Like that one in the middle of the jungle that Robin had commissioned but none of us has ever had need to visit?"

"Exactly. Anyway, we should pry get Rob settled as soon as possible, which means the hideouts are out until he's good to be moved again, right?"

"It's like you're reading my mind," she said.

"I gathered everything I could from the manual access menus and set up shop beside a lil' fire I built earlier—not much in the way of electronics, but we got canned goods, sleeping bags, blankets, flashlights—"

"Any med stuff?"

"Nadda."

"Figured. I'm going to bring back an IV drip, some saline bags, sterile cloths, sanitation material and…anything else I can think of, then head back."

"Don't forget the painkillers."

"At the top of my list." She said, then signed off.

Raven pursed her lips as she looked around the unfamiliar room. _"Good thing I've patched up the other Titans enough in the med bay to know what I'm looking for," _she thought, _"But of course they wouldn't just conveniently store the Vicodin next to the rolls of gauze." _She paused. _"Guess I'll just have to take a surreptitious trip to the pharmacy."_

Fifteen minutes later, Raven stood against the same wall she had originally phased to, a happy grin of satisfaction pulling at her lips despite her fatigue. _"I think I found everything rather quickly of the considering I've never been here before; thank Azar for bureaucratic organization and the American Vicodin addiction which guaranteed it would be fully stocked."_

The half-demon heroine gathered all of her supplies awkwardly in her arms, cradling a ball of gauze wrapped in plastic wrap in the crook of her elbow and balancing a tube of antibiotic ointment on her toes. She threw an uncertain glance at the storage room door and shifted uneasily.

_"You would've thought stealing from a hospital would be a hard limit on my list of stuff not to do as a celebrated crime-fighter, but I think this warrants an exception. And as they don't hand out credit cards to refugees from other plains without a background check-or daughters of interdimentional demons with one-I don't have another way to pay for any of this." _She sighed._ "Maybe I should start carrying cash around," _then she snorted. _"And stick in my leotard? No, __I'll just have Robin send them a check later—assuming we all survive this."_

_"Azarath, metrion zinthos,"_ she whispered, then melted through the floor with her stolen goods in tow beneath her cloak.

TTTTTTTTTTT

Raven popped up in the shadows created by Cyborg's fire. "It's been a while since I've been down here," she said when she spied her team mate's hulking form nearby.

_"No Robin or Starfire," _she realized, disappointed.

"Not surprising, you being able to fly and all" Cyborg called out to her. He stood from his spot by the fire and peered at her goods. "There's no need for you to come down here to cross over to the city."

Her heart leapt as she spotted Beast Boy seated far outside the firelight's perimeter, his back against the tunnel wall. _"He made it back in one piece then,"_ then, feeling she needed to justify her relief at finding the changeling in one piece, she hastily added to herself: _"One less thing to worry about, I guess." _

The dancing light of the flickering flames sharpened his silhouette, making it appear taller, more feral than it should, and she forced herself to look away.

"The place looks good," she said as she saw the sleep spaces set up at various intervals around the fire. Piles of what she presumed to be food and blankets dotted the area. "I don't know why, but I half expected there to be cave paintings on the stone."

"Nah, BB wanted to bring down crayons when we first built 'er, but I wouldn't let him," Cyborg joked. He glanced at the butt of his joke, but it seemed he wasn't paying attention, his gaze fixed on some unknown point upon the ceiling.

Raven set down her newly stolen possessions and silently prayed no one would notice her shaking limbs as the worry she'd tried to ignore threatened to crush her.

_"Where are they?" _She wondered. _"How is it I had time to drop by Jump City Memorial Hospital to grab medical supplies but Starfire isn't back yet?"_

"Heard anything from our missing members?" She asked.

_"I know that holding the life of one's not-so-secret love in one's hands is intimidating, but it shouldn't have been more than she could handle."_

"Nope. Should we be concerned?"

Raven looked to Beast Boy, who locked stares with her. She was struck by the exhaustion apparent on his normally youthful face, set in his baggy eyes and slack mouth. _"He's never looke__d so old before."_

"We'll give her a few more minutes," she decided.

Beast Boy blinked once then focused back onto the ceiling.

The minutes stretched on.

Raven set up Robin's sleeping pad, the IV drip, the saline bags.

No Starfire.

She set out the gauze, the antibiotic ointments, the splints, the pain killers.

No Starfire.

She sat down, intent on meditating.

No Starfire.

She gave up on meditating and started pacing.

No freaking Starfire.

Finally, she resolved to sit and wait silently, if not patiently.

She drifted off, lost in her thoughts and the haunting image of Beast Boy and his listless stares.

Eventually she heard a metallic clanking behind her, stirring her from her reverie.

"Rae, what 'chu starin' at B for?" Cyborg asked.

The sorceress' normally grey skin warmed to a pale rose color. She turned to face him, and with his height dwarfing her, she felt like a child being reprimanded. _"Which is silly since I haven't done anything wrong."_

Raven decided to feign innocence. "Hmm?"

"Now don't think I'm creepy or nothing, but I been staring at you, staring at BB, staring at that wall over there. See, I got the call from Star same you and BB saying she'd found Robin, but apparently I missed the part that said we needed to just stare at stuff until everybody got back. Otherwise I wouldn't have bothered putting all this stuff together for when you put all Robin's innards back inside his belly."

Raven raised a lavender eyebrow, hoping her tacit, recondite nature would save her from having to provide a lengthy answer.

"Don't play with me, girl. I may not be a mind-reader-"

"Empath," she interrupted.

"-But I do have two perfectly good eyes, one with heat vision."

"Your point?"

"That I'll pretend my sensors didn't register the slight increase in blood flow indicating a blush if you tell me why you were staring in the first place."

She flicked her gaze back to the sitting changeling, his head bobbing gently, his shoulder resting against the tunnel wall. "He's counting," she said.

"What makes you say that?"

_"Because I've been watching him do it for the past 10 minutes,"_ Raven wanted to say, but she bit back the sarcastic retort. "His head is moving up and down with the water droplets falling on the ground. And sometimes his mouth moves in a staccato rhythm like he's speaking in short words-numbers."

"How observant of you," Cyborg commented.

"Like a regular Sherlock Holmes," she joked dryly. "Your curiosity satisfied yet?" she asked. She tore her eyes away from Beast Boy, who had realized he was being watched and shifted to turn his back to the pair, but not before returning her stare with a sharp glare.

"Not even close," Cyborg said.

Raven studied her cybernetic teammate, grateful to see that his concern was less on her reaction and more on the aspects of his friend that only she, an empath, could see. Which made it easier to not clam up and phase into her soul self where she could avoid social contact and embarrassing betrayals of her body like blushing.

"I'm trying to figure out how much of this behavior is just Beast Boy being his weird self and how much of this indicates I need to check for head injuries from the altercation with Terra."

"So you're worried about him," he prompted.

"I guess you could say that."

"Go on." He crossed his metallic arms.

She considered a moment, then sighed, resigned to her teammate's persistence. "Beast Boy's emotions are usually so shallow I could walk through them without wetting my empathic feet. But now his aura's awash with all these foreign feeling." She looked at Cyborg uncertainly, but he was looking at Beast Boy, his human profile turned toward her so she could see his more fragile features, currently molded into a vulnerable frown.

"I also detect a substantial amount of guilt and insecurity. You'd think he was the one at fault for Terra's attacks, the way he's projecting his shame."

"He probably thinks that," Cyborg agreed with an incline of his head. "You know he pulled harder than anyone else to get Terra a spot on the team, to make her feel welcome and help her acclimate to the Tower. I don't think we'll ever be able to convince him that Terra would have betrayed us to Slade no matter what he did, that as much as he cared for her, she flat out didn't care for him the same way. To him, there'll always be something he didn't know he coulda done that he shoulda done to prevent this whole mess."

Raven winced inwardly at a pain in her palms. She looked down to see her hands clenched into fists, her nails digging into her skin._  
_

Cyborg gave her a meaningful look, and she felt her cheeks flush once more. "Boy's got more heart than you give 'im credit for," he said softly, then turned and walked back to the fire pit.

"I know," Raven agreed silently.

**Ta da! Blech. I'm tired.**

**Pleasant snor'vaks!**


	7. Chap 7: Entertaining Escapism

**I've been thinking about it, and I decided to switch this chapter out with Raven's trip to the hospital, so sorry for the confusion. If Starfire's memory sequence is the last chapter you read, then proceed to chapter 6, please. If you haven't read this chapter yet, proceed to the end of chapter 5, starting with the very last line of "TTTTTTs" that denote point-of-view change.**

**Please d****on't be mad, it had to be this way!**

_Rock Your World, Chapter 7_

Starfire's heart beat erratically, her nine stomachs churned uneasily and her muscles trembled violently.

"I cannot fly right now," she panicked, mouth dry.

When Raven had charged her with Robin's transport, Starfire had not been able to explain that her powers, so inextricably linked to her state of mind, were just as uncontrollable as her present emotions. _"Perhaps if I had, Raven would have undertaken the extra load despite her fatigue, and Robin would be on his way back to the tunnel now_." Instead, she had simply stood there, mute and useless.

She felt Robin clutch at her weakly, his hand seeking...something—a source of safety or comfort, maybe. Her heart fluttered as though he had inadvertently tugged on her heartstrings. _"Robin is depending on me,"_ she reminded herself. _"I could not place such a burden on Raven; she is already doing so much to save him."_

Starfire looked down at the warm figure in her embrace, his face relaxed but solemn even in slumber.

_"He needs me," _she thought, and fought against her anxieties to focus on a happy memory to lift herself and her dearest friend into the sky and toward the help that awaited him.

She remembered the first time she and Robin flew together…

Starfire gazed out at the Earthen sunset from the window of her new home in the Tower of Titan. Different shades of purple and pink stained the fluffy white clouds, and the aesthetic reminded her of the fuchsia- and rose-painted skies on her home planet. In contrast, the landscape could scarcely have been more different without changing the atmosphere. Tameran had its fair share of cities despite its relatively rural status, but the low-level housing and spired palace sharply contrasted the cities that dotted the Earth's landscape, their sparkling lights lighting the sky so brightly they had beckoned to her even from space.

The differences between the two planets increased her sickness of the home if she thought about it too much, so she focused instead on the beauty of the city with which she was most familiar. She had quickly fallen in love with Jump's scrapers of the sky and bountiful gardens, though her ardor had cooled some when she realized the wastefulness of the latter features. _"What use is a plant if it is not for eating?" _She had wondered, flabbergasted at the indulgent nature of the slow-moving, land-bound humans native to the planet. Still, there was a certain beauty to the urban center, especially when viewed from the top floor of the Tower and surrounded by the roiling ocean that separated the island from the city's beach.

Movement in the corner of her eye dragged her attention to the Tower's shoreline, where a small black figure paced along a short stretch of sand and stomped his feet.

"Robin," she whispered, her breath catching and her stomachs twisting as usual when she saw him.

The team's resident alien unclasped one of the windows and floated out of her room, newly decorated to reflect the colors of a Tameranian sky, and closed it behind her. She flew down to the sand and landed at the Tower's base, preparing to approach her stoic leader but uncertain as to what she could say that would not irritate him or embarrass herself.

Robin ceased his pacing and stood at the edge of the shore, tapping a boot on the sand and crossing his arms when Starfire's shadow fell next to his, alerting him of her presence. He whirled around and met her gaze, his lips pursed in an expression of consternation.

"What concerns you, Titan Robin?" She asked.

"Hmm? Oh, just rethinking the wisdom of building our base a half mile into the water. It sounded great for privacy and security reasons, but Cyborg has the only boat and I'm stuck here until he gets back."

_"Ah, the 'dingy' Robin acquired from the Titans' mysterious benefactor for temporary transportation across the bay." _"Do we not have another available?"

He shook his head and drew his toe across the sand in a line that was quickly erased by a miniature wave. "We only have room for the one until Cyborg builds a suitable storage place for it."

Starfire cocked her head. "Could we not store it out here?"

He scoffed. "You're too trusting," he chided her. "You can't leave a boat out in the open unprotected; someone might take it."

"All the way out here?"

Robin appeared to consider her point, then shrugged his shoulders in an expression she had come to associate with ambivalence or resignation. "Never hurts to be prepared," he defended.

_"Am I too trusting?" _she wondered as they both looked to the lazy waves spilling onto the beach and wetting their shoes,_ "Or is this part of the 'senseless paranoia' I overheard Cyborg mention earlier?"_

"Perhaps I may assist you," Starfire suggested.

"That's alright," Robin declined automatically.

Starfire bristled at the response, unaware at the time that it was Robin's instinctual reaction to an offer of aid.

"It would be of little inconvenience," she reassured him. "I am to make a trip myself to inspect the cream of ice I saw advertised on the vision that tells," she improvised. It was not a lie per se, as she had wanted to visit the city's shops. Truly, she told herself, only the timing was coincidental.

"That would be 'ice cream' and 'television'," he corrected, and Starfire spotted a grin out of the corner of her eye. A moment of silence lapsed. "Um," he hesitated, "If it wouldn't be any trouble…" he trailed off.

Starfire waited for him to finish his sentence, but an awkward silence arose between them. She turned to see him looking at her expectantly out of the corner of his eye.

"_Am I to finish his thought?"_ she wondered. "Then I would be glad to help," she smiled.

"Great," he grinned back, shy. "So how do we—" his question was cut off as Starfire grabbed his wrist and pulled him close to her. She hooked one arm around his waist and secured a hand around his rib cage as he mimed speechless protestations and uselessly tried to pull out of her grasp. Without another word she lifted them straight into the sky.

Robin released a startled scream and wrapped his arms around Starfire's middle.

Starfire giggled and turned toward the coast. "Fear not, Titan Robin. I will not drop you."

"Sorry," he yelled. "I've never flown before—at least, not outside of an aircraft."

She slowed down considerably but he only clung on tighter to her. "That is ironic considering you are named after a species of bird, is it not?"

"I—I guess so," he sputtered distractedly.

His desperate clutching gave Starfire pause as she considered his fear. _"I have not seen him express trepidation yet," _she realized, and looked down at him with his head tucked into her neck, _"the emotion looks most out of place on him."_

He chanced a glance up at her and she looked to their destination, embarrassed at being caught staring.

They flew in silence until he spoke up. "Are we almost there?" He asked.

Starfire tore her gaze away from the sparkling blue water in front of them and to her frightened charge, whose eyes were firmly shut.

"You must calm down, fellow Titan. Learn to enjoy the sensation of flight."

"How?" Robin asked, halfway hysterical.

"You must trust me," Starfire replied patiently. Robin slowly withdrew his hands from their death grip around Starfire's back until Starfire's hold was the only thing keeping him from falling to what he must have believed would be his inevitable death.

"Still don't like this," he yelled.

Starfire laughed. "Do not forget that I am stronger than I look to human eyes," she reminded him. "You are safe with me." Slowly, she extracted the rigid body from her side and lowered him beneath her, so they both lay parallel to the water below them by half the length of the Tower. Robin kept his body tight, his breaths short in the thin air.

"Open your eyes—spread your arms out like the wings of your namesake."

Robin tentatively reached his hands out on either side of him. He gasped.

"Wow," he exclaimed. "Definitely beats the view from the Batplane."

Starfire laughed. "If you previously flew on top of a sightless mammal then I can agree."

He snorted.

"Are you ready for the next part?" She asked.

Robin tensed up again. "What next part?" He asked.

Starfire hurtled him further into the air, launched at a terrifying 45 degrees and flying faster than the Beast Boy had while in avian form. At first, it seemed Robin had succumbed to the muscle-freezing horror of soaring through the sky without aid, but then his acrobatic instincts must have kicked in, because he gave a hoot of excitement and started somersaulting in a manner not unlike what she'd seen in combat practice. He reached the apex of his arc and performed a few complicated maneuvers before straightened out again. As if on cue, Starfire flew up above him and placed her hands on either side of his rib cage.

They glided slowly toward shore and she released over the glittering sand.

"Thanks," he said simply, and reached a gloved hand behind his neck.

Starfire smiled wide, her hands and ankles fixed solidly to their partners. "It was my pleasure, Titan Robin."

"Uh, you don't have to call me 'Titan', you know," he informed her awkwardly.

Her smile faltered as she took on a look of confusion.

"On my planet, we address one another by our titles. Is that not common practice on Earth?"  
"Sometimes," Robin admitted. "But mostly people save that for more formal occasions. Especially between friends, we usually just go by first names."

"I see," she said, then excitedly added, "We are friends, then?"

Her question took Robin aback. "Well, yeah, I guess. We're teammates after all. Plus you just took me flying and I trusted you not to let me fall to a certain death," he joked.

She cocked her head at him. "Do you mean to say that you could not have survived dropping into the water from that height?" His mouth fell slack until she gave him a cheeky grin. "I believe I am doing the 'pulling of the leg,'" she said.

"I'm glad," he recovered.

She beamed. "And I am glad you have 'the trust' in me, friend Robin."

Robin smiled, and the conversation lapsed into silence, though a comfortable one this time.

"Will you ride back with Cyborg now that you are on the same side as the boat?" She asked.

"Actually, I wanted to ask if you'd just like to come along with me to pick up some supplies, then maybe take me back later," he asked sheepishly.

"That would be—" Starfire struggled for the word, "—nice," she settled on.

Robin turned toward town.

"Come on, I know a great ice cream shop on 5th."

Starfire reflected on the day of Robin's first flight and the resultant as she closed in on the alleyway that hid one of the underground tunnel's entrances. She could hardly reconcile that happy, healthy boy with the mass of bloodied flesh she held in her arms, _"But if I bring him to Raven soon enough, he will have the chance to be that boy once more."_

Her dusty boots touched lightly upon the street's cracked asphalt. _"No,"_ she reconsidered._ "Robin has changed so much since then. __He will never be the same person again, not after these scars." _Emotional as well as physical.

She cradled him in one arm as she moved a graffiti-covered dumpster away from the wall. She traced her finger along the brick wall until she successfully located a thin, vertical line cut into the bricks, barely discernible from the surrounding material. She shoved at the area directly to the left of the line at her eye level. A rectangular section about Cyborg's height and roughly one and a half times his width receded about an inch into the wall.

"Identify," a computerized voice commanded.

"Starfire," she whispered.

"Identity confirmed," the voice said. "Request for entrance granted." The wall receded another few inches, then slid behind the brick and mortar space to its left. Starfire stepped through the newly created entryway and lifted off again as a series of fluorescent lights illuminated the tunnel and the partition behind her sealed shut once more.

Robin's breathing sped up and he made a pained noise as Starfire shifted him back into both arms.

"I am sorry, Robin," she whispered and wondered how long he had been awake. "We will reach the rest of the Titans soon, and then Raven will take the pain away."

He grunted weakly, and Starfire saw his jaw tighten as he presumably gritted his teeth.

She flew faster.


	8. Chap 8: Healing Hands

_****_**This chapter is about four days late, but I really wanted to give it the time that it deserved because I haven't been satisfied with the last two chapters (which have been edited, by the way, and switched so Starfire's memory sequence is now chapter 7). It's pretty contemplative and reflective, but in a different way than Starfire's last section. Does this story need more action? Right now it seems to be heavy as far as exposition is concerned, but I don't know if that's good or bad.**

**Also, here's the most important edit from Raven's chapter (now chapter 6):**

(Cyborg:) "Don't forget the painkillers."

"At the top of my list." She said, then signed off.

Raven pursed her lips as she looked around the unfamiliar room. _"Good thing I've patched up the other Titans enough in the med bay to know what I'm looking for," _she thought, _"But of course they wouldn't just conveniently store the Vicodin next to the rolls of gauze." _She paused. _"Guess I'll just have to take a surreptitious trip to the pharmacy."_

Fifteen minutes later, Raven stood against the same wall she had originally phased to, a happy grin of satisfaction pulling at her lips despite her fatigue. _"I think I found everything rather quickly of the considering I've never been here before; thank Azar for bureaucratic organization and the American Vicodin addiction which guaranteed it would be fully stocked."_

**Anyway, here's the Raven-centric...**

****_Rock Your World, Chapter 8_

_"I know,"_ Raven agreed silently as Cyborg walked away.

A soft green glow to her left snagged her attention, and she saw Starfire coming around a curve, her eyes blazing as she carried Robin's limp form toward them.

Her Tameranian teammate flew as though someone chased her as she rounded the bend, but she slowed as she reached the three Titans and their makeshift fire pit.

"Starfire!" Beast Boy piped up from his space along the wall. Raven threw him a glance and he winked back as he bounded over to her. "Don't be jealous, Rae; I would've jumped up to see you, too, 'cept I already knew you were alright so it wasn't as big a deal, but Starfire being back means Robin's back and he—" Beast Boy sucked in a breath as Starfire floated into the circle of firelight and he caught his first sight of Robin's bloodied visage.

"Any problems?" Raven asked. She withdrew a hand out from beneath her cloak and directed Starfire to Robin's sleeping pad.

"None. Though I fear the journey took longer than expected to guarantee concealment."

The alien woman landed, and Raven had to keep herself from reeling from the multitude of emotions she sensed in her female companion: anxiety, as she had expected; insecurity, as she had witnessed; but she also discerned the fury that powered her glowing green eyes, the joy that kept her flying, and the confidence that strengthened her deceptively small though undeniably mighty muscles. _"How she functions with so many emotions battling for her attention I'll never understand," _the empath thought.

"I hope you didn't have those ocular flashlights lit on your way here," Cyborg joked.

Starfire creased her brow momentarily before recognition dawned. "Oh, my eyes? No, I only illuminated them when we entered the tunnel."

Starfire set Robin down gently on the thick sleeping pad, but Raven could sense Robin stealing himself against the pain, his swollen eyes squeezed tightly and his mouth set in a grim line despite Starfire's attempts to keep the jostling to a minimum, though whether it was to spare Starfire further grief or to keep from looking weak, Raven couldn't tell.

The sorceress knelt down and prepared to continue where she'd left off earlier, the flashlights positioned to provide adequate lighting, the IV drip ready to be inserted and the other medical supplies open and arranged for easy access. Starfire obediently walked a hundred or so yards away, Beast Boy slumped back to his wall, and Cyborg busied himself with the items he'd brought from the emergency storage units.

"This is going to be a long night," Raven thought resignedly.

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos," she whispered, her eyes glowing with the dark power of her father. But the blue energy that emanated from her palms proved to be the more important of the two magics at work in the tunnel that night.

Unlike empathy, telepathy, telekinesis and teleportation, Raven's healing hands hadn't been the result of her demon ancestry; they had been earned through years of scholarly study and eldritch practice. At the tender age of fourteen, she could knit skin back together, grow muscle tissue, heal fragile organs, and even fix cavities. _"Some might think it ironic that during my time with the Monks of Azarath I chose to study ways of preserving life, knowing that my ultimate destiny is to help destroy it," _Raven reflected as she reassessed Robin's injuries, _"but during times like this, I'm grateful for my choice." _No matter how ultimately pointless it might be.

She'd come to Earth fully aware of what her devastating future held, fully aware how nihilistic her good intensions were, but regardless of what prophecy had decreed, she'd decided she wouldn't let her biological origins completely determine her existence, and she'd spent the better part of her time in this dimension trying to help others.

And it still wasn't enough. It only took a simple motorcycle crash to completely incapacitate Robin, and while the scrapes and burns he'd sustained had been rather simple to fix, she'd been flummoxed by the broken bone. _"What if the bone doesn't set right?" _she'd wondered as the three remaining Titans simultaneously looked to her to fix the injury. _"What if it heals at an angle, or fuses with another bone? What if I overlook something and it comes back as an infection? As cancer?" _She'd been secretly hysterical despite affecting an apathetic attitude to hide her anxiety, terrified of failing, terrified of breaking Robin even worse.

_"And sure,"_ she thought as she worked on his collar bone, having already fixed his fractured skull and dislocated jaw. _"I managed to heal it to a fracture, but what good did that do? It stuck him in a cast, and would have kept him grounded for several weeks if it hadn't been for Larry's convenient arrival."_

It seemed strange now to think that the problem of broken bones hadn't been an issue before that event, but then again, her charges were atypically resilient.

Cyborg acted as his own doctor in the event of a serious injury, working on his body similar to a mechanic working on a car. So much of his body consisted of robotic parts he fairly well managed to keep his more fragile human parts safe, and hadn't had much use for a healer's touch thus far.

Starfire, with her resilient alien structure, rarely experienced so much as a scrape that broke the skin, regardless of how much skin her uniform exposed. In all the battles they'd fought together, Raven had only ever seen the Tamaranian injured a few times, and only when she hadn't had her guard up. In those instances, Starfire usually shrugged off Raven's offers of help, explaining that a few hours in the sun would do as much or more than Raven's magic, so it usually wasn't worth the energy it took to heal her.

The unstable genome that allowed for Beast Boy's bestial transformations blessed him with a unique healing ability. As Beast Boy found out in an experiment conducted by the Doom Patrol, injuries sustained by the changeling could be subverted by transforming into an animal that didn't have those specific body parts. For example, a gash in his arm would heal if he transformed into a limbless animal, such as a snake, and then healed back, since his body automatically regrew the tissues when he morphed into a limbed animal. Only if he was too tired to transform did he ask for Raven's help.

_"That'd sure be nice right now,"_ she mused as she wrenched his right arm back into its shoulder socket. Robin gritted his teeth to keep the scream in his throat. "One more to go," she warned him, and reached for the left arm.

As for Raven herself, being the daughter of a demon did have some benefits, including tough skin and hard bones in supplement her other powers. Then there was the healing ability she'd been working to master for years.

Which left Robin. By far the Titan with the fastest reflexes, Robin usually managed to avoid all but the most superficial of abrasions during combat. When he did injure himself, he only brought it to Raven's attention when absolutely necessary, preferring the rest of the time to take care of his bruises on his own, just as he had done while under the watchful eye of the Dark Knight.

_"I don't even want to know how he dealt with bruised kidneys without me around," she thought, her hands hovering above his torso._

The worst condition Raven had seen him in had been after his return to the Titans following his short tenure as Slade's unwilling apprentice. Due to Starfire's insistent harping, he'd reluctantly allowed Raven to heal some of the more serious bruises that the heavy armor hadn't been able to prevent, and when he peeled the bronze and steel armor away, Raven caught a glimpse of a round, puckered scar on one of his shoulders. _"Don't ask,"_ he'd commanded, meeting her eye, and they'd finished the rest of their visit in silence. But it was too late; she'd found conclusive evidence that the mysterious leader who'd long pretended to be invincible was only human, even if he spent every waking second trying to make everyone around him forget it.

When he totaled the R-Cycle during his first encounter with Johnny Rancid and broke his arm, Raven realized how fortunate they had all been that not only had he not suffered a worse injury from the explosions, but also that he hadn't broken anything else so far. As it was, Raven could only reduce the break to a fracture, and hope Jump City didn't attract any attention the remaining four Titans couldn't handle in the mean time. Then Larry showed up, and for all his awkward quirks and annoying idiosyncrasies, he managed to do what Raven couldn't: fix Robin.

After Larry traveled back to his dimension, Raven searched for and studied complex spells that would heal human bones. It had taken hours of meditation over the scrolls and their contents before she felt confident she had them perfectly memorized, but she hadn't had a chance to practice it until now.

The half-demon sorceress looked at her leader's prone body, his bloody scrapes—which had thankfully stopped bleeding, but were none-the-less still worrisome—his swollen eyes, still tightly shut against the pain. She felt his pain through her empathic shield, and took in a deep breath as she prepared to utter the incantation of the spell for the first time in the presence of an actual subject.

_"Just focus. Focus and don't think about how exhausted you'll be in the morning."_

**What do you think? P.S., I have no idea if what I wrote about Raven's healing ability/history is true, or if the other Titans usually don't need her help. It just makes sense based on the TV show (which consistently shows the Titans sustaining blows that would incapacitate them for days or weeks if they were normal humans) that their bodies would have to have natural ways to compensate for the injuries they experience.**


	9. Chap 9: Cybernetic Soothing

__**Hello all, sorry I haven't updated but I've been having trouble coming up with motivation to write lately. Still, I think this chapter is alright. Enjoy!**

_Rock Your World, Chapter 9_

_ "Guess there's only so much bored tinkering a half-robot man can stand before he runs out of stuff to do," _Cyborg sighed. He straightened out of his kneeling position from where he'd just checked on the fire for the umpteenth time that evening and looked around him. _"Do we even need this fire, still?" _He asked himself. Sure the warmth was nice, but it didn't do much with no one close enough to it to enjoy it. The light it provided was still more superfluous, as the overhead bulbs turned on automatically when the sensors registered movement around them, surrounding the Titans with several hundred feet of uninterrupted illumination.

_"Wonder what's going on with the rest of the crew."_

He spotted Raven first, busy making with the hocus pocus from her lotus position across the fire and hovering her glowing blue hands over Robin, whose skin still looked as purple and swollen as an eggplant's. Starfire, off in the distance and opposite Raven and Robin, had returned to pacing, though this time she'd chosen the tunnel's vertical wall as her stroll site, rather than the ground, her red hair hanging perpendicular to her body. Beast Boy, in contrast, hadn't moved from his spot against the wall since Starfire and Robin arrived, and his eyes stared blearily ahead of him, open at half-mast with his head propped up on the rock behind him.

"Hey man, how you doin'?" Cyborg asked, approaching his shortest, greenest friend.

Beast Boy pulled away from the wall and jumped up, his ears perked and his smile cheerful.

"Better now we have our fearless leader back," he replied a little too quickly.

"That's good," Cyborg said in a sympathetic voice. He waited for the changeling to continue the conversation, but BB simply stared at him, his smile growing more forced by the second. _"Gotta broach this carefully," _Cyborg reminded himself. He pursed his fleshy lips, twitched his cybernetic cheek, and sighed. "You know this wasn't your fault, right?"

Beast Boy grimaced. "What are you talking about?"

_"Smooth," _he thought.

"It's okay, B. We all know how you felt about Terra, and after she left we knew sooner or later we were gonna see her again, but it still hurt to see her when we did, how we did. You don't have to put on a bold face for us."

BB narrowed his eyes. "I don't know why you're telling me things I already know, but I don't appreciate it," he snapped, his usually innocuous-looking fang poking out menacingly.

Cyborg backed away and raised his hands up, palms out in a placating manner. "Cool it, Beast Boy, I just wanted to check to make sure you're okay." He sharpened his voice. "But I don't need you jumping down my throat."

Beast Boy's frown eased into a neutral expression. "Sorry, I guess I'm just not up to socializing right now."

"Alright that's fine," Cyborg said with a shrug. He dropped his hands down and backed away slowly. "Just remember, Green Bean, I'm good for more than just video games, if you need to talk to someone."

Beast Boy graced him with a small smile. "I know," he said. Then he brightened. "You're just not good at building tunnels, or else you wouldn't have a leak," he said cheekily.

Cyborg returned the grin and shook his head. "I'm sure that'll be the first thing we take care of once we get back on our feet. A'ight?"

He offered the changeling a half-hearted fist bump, then placed his hand on the smaller boy's shoulder. "How 'bout we get you somewhere drier, mmm?" Cyborg directed the changeling to the nearest sleeping pad, close to the firepit.

"I'm not really that tired—" Beast Boy protested, but shuffled forward obediently.

"That's what happens when you use stone as your mattress and pillow!" Cyborg retorted, then slapped him heartily on the back, bringing Beast Boy to his knees on the soft padding. "Once you get all warm and toasty, I'm sure you'll drift off just fine."

The changeling grumbled but slunk into the fetal position and wrapped himself in a blanket.

Cyborg quietly congratulated himself. _"One down, three to go," _he thought, and made his way toward the Tameranian a hundred or so feet away.

As he neared, he noticed that during this round of pacing she seemed to exude less anxiety and more anger, if her glowing eyes and fists indicated anything of her present state of mind. She had also taken to pacing along the wall instead of the floor, using her flight ability to keep her fixed to the vertical stone.

_"Least Star's not trying to hide her feelings."_ "Hey girl," he called to her. "How's it hanging?"

Starfire froze. "I am sorry, but I do not believe I have anything hanging at the moment," she considered for a moment, and extinguished her eyes as her fury gave way to confusion, furrowing her brows. "Unless you refer to my hair, which is indeed hanging down."

Cyborg chuckled. "S'no problem. It's another one of our crazy sayings. It's like 'how are you?'"

"I am the okay, friend Cyborg. I thank you for asking."

The half-robot teem eyed her skeptically out of his human eye.

"Truly, I am being honest. I cannot manage happiness due to the gravity of our circumstances, but everyone is here, protected from immediate harm, and-" she cast a glance to where Raven worked on Robin. "-mostly undamaged, so neither am I particularly distraught."

"Then why you all the way over here?"

She hopped down and affected a demure stance, her eyes downcast and her hands clasped behind her back. "I have full faith in Raven's healing abilities, but I find myself anxious regardless, and my nervous disposition disturbs Raven's concentration. I have placed myself out of her immediate empathic reach to avoid distracting her."

"Maybe you should try and relax," he suggested.

Starfire shook her head vehemently and resumed her pacing. "I cannot do the relaxing while Robin's life is in danger. I find I am too 'wound up' to do the calming down. Or sitting down or laying down or anything besides staying alert until Raven has finished for the night and I am certain Robin is alright."

"You know you can stay up without wearing a track into that poor wall, right?" He smiled and pointed to the line of red dust that had been imprinted upon the stone from Starfire's boots.

"You are employing an element of humor in an effort to pacify me, yes?"

Cyborg blanched. "Uh. Nah, I'm just checking up on ya-wanted to see what's wrong with the bed I made for you that it isn't good enough to actually use."

"You are doing it again," she chided him, but he simply crossed his arms and smiled at her. "Nothing is wrong with the bedding, and I appreciate your thoughtfulness, but I am not interested in sleeping now."

His smile sagged and he looked down at her pleadingly. "Come on, Star, you know Rob would want you to be at your best tomorrow. He'll still be bent out of shape, Rae'll be tired from fixing him, and I'll be operating on minimum power until I can recharge. We need you and BB to keep your strength up to make up for the rest of us being low on our game."

Starfire's eyes twitched left, then right. She dug the toe of one of her boots into the ground as she fidgeted with her hands, clearly wrestling her people-pleasing instincts against her will to stay conscious and keep tabs on Robin.

Cyborg noticed the moment she gave in, her arm muscles tensing in the second before she met his eye and said: "I will attempt to sleep, but I make none of the guarantees."

He beckoned her with a wave of his hand back to the firepit. "Right this way, lil' lady."

As they neared the fire, Cyborg quickened his pace to reach Starfire's pad before her, then dragged it back an extra twenty feet. Starfire nodded her appreciation, eyeing Raven guiltily. "That is a good idea," she whispered, and pulled back a few inches so the rectangular pad lay parallel to the tunnel wall. "To keep me further away."

He straightened her pillow and blanket a bit and glanced back at her. "It's isn't round like your weird alien bed upstairs, but it'll do. And it's not like you have to worry about getting cold or anything, right."

She smiled gratefully at him and sat down. "It is wonderful."

Cyborg waved her goodnight and surveyed the area. _"Two down, two to go,"_ he thought, then yawned. _"Make that three,"_ he amended, walking slowly to Raven's workspace, encircled by a series of flashlights in lieu of her usual candles. He checked his internal battery and winced. _"Low battery. Go figure, after all we've done today. But with no power station in reach I'm out for a regular recharge. Guess I'll just shutdown in a few and set an alarm for the morning."_

When he was within three feet of the circle, he raised a finger and opened his mouth to speak.

"No," Raven said tersely, her hood up and her back turned to him as she wrapped Robin's right leg—clean of blood and bare to his mid-thigh-in a thick layer of white gauze.

"No what?" Cyborg asked, confused.

She paused in her ministrations. "No I don't need anything, no I'm not going to sleep yet, no I won't be done anytime soon. Just no."

"Got it," he mumbled, sheepish.

"Sorry. Concentrating. Night."

"Night," he replied, and headed for his own sleeping pad a short distance away. _"Guess that settles that," _he thought, and settled in. He covered himself in the blanket and punched in his alarm and shutdown codes. _"Shutting down," _flashed across his vision in red letters, then it went black.


	10. Chap 10: Robin's Relief

**Hello! After a long hiatus, I am back. Sorry for the 'long time, no posting,' but I just haven't felt motivated to work on this story for some reason. But! Urged on by my reviewers (Sailor Sea, lilikoppsaya, annalise) and the numerous followers/favorites, I have returned!**

**Behold: an unrepentantly fluffy chapter filled with RobXStar adorable-ness and a few lines from the Boy Blunder. Enjois.**

_Rock Your World, chapter 10_

Hours later, Starfire awoke to the soft call of her name.

She jerked her eyes open, infuriated at having fallen asleep despite deliberately sitting herself in an uncomfortable position with her back against the cold stone when she'd settled down earlier. She cracked her neck to fix a crick and looked around to identify the speaker. It took her eyes a few moments to focus in the darkness, but soon enough she recognized Raven's dark form and rushed over to her. The fluorescent lights flickered on and followed her as she met her friend, leaning tiredly against the tunnel wall with a hand pressed against her forehead.

"Are you alright?" Starfire asked her, reaching out to touch her friend but retracted her hand back immediately upon remembering that the sorceress detested most instances of physical touch.

"I'm fine, Starfire. I just have a headache. Anyway, I figured you'd want an update on Robin's condition."

Starfire took a step forward. "Please," she whispered.

"My powers can only do so much, especially in one sitting," the sorceress warned. "But at least he's no longer in mortal danger. I fixed the damage to his lung and healed all of the internal bleeding, but it'll take a few more sessions before I'm finished with his bones; I've reduced most of the damage to mere fractures and fixed some of them in their entirety, although he could easily rebreak them by…well, being himself," she shrugged. "Anyway, I'm done for the night, and he's over there if you want to check up on him."

Starfire started to fly forward but jerked back to face Raven. "I would not wish to disturb him," she hesitated.

"Disturb him, Starfire, trust me," Raven ordered.

Starfire inclined her head in farewell then flew over to Robin, illuminating her hand with a soft green glow as she floated.

"Hey Star," Robin greeted her hoarsely. He looked sickly in the starbolt's light, pale and bruised, yet smiling for some reason, even as the effort cracked his lips and let blood.

"Hello Robin. You look—" gaunt, unhealthy, ghostly, "—better." Despite his two black eyes and a half-healed gash across his face.

He croaked a half-sarcastic chuckle. "You too. Dry is a good look for you," he teased.

She smiled and sat beside him with her knees tucked beneath her.

"Seriously, though. Are you okay after what happened today?" He asked her. "You didn't really get much time to recover before I sent you off to free Beast Boy and Cyborg."

Starfire cocked her head to the side. "Yes Robin, Tamaranians heal quickly."

"And how about…emotionally?"

The lights powered down as the motion sensors timed out, leaving the pair squinting at one another in the dim light of the fire.

Starfire furrowed her brow. "It is nothing I cannot handle."

"I know," he rushed to say. "It's just that you—you feel more than the rest of the Titans."

"Feel?"

"Yeah. I know you come from a warrior culture and all—and there was that whole thing with the Gordanians," he floundered as he searched for a way to express himself. "So I know you're used to seeing bad things happen, but the things we experience? Sometimes I wonder if maybe it doesn't impact you especially hard. And I know I don't do emotions too well—maybe you do them good enough for both of us, you know?"

Her expression softened. "I do not know, Robin. I am still new to this planet, and it is difficult to decipher when it is appropriate to express my feelings, and when I must bury certain ones in order to complete a mission and be the combatant upon which my teammates can depend. On Tameran, as a warrior and as a—" she stopped herself from saying 'princess', "—citizen of my particular sociopolitical class, I needed to ensure that I did not appear _rutha, _and I limited expressions of sympathy_. _But my time with the Titans has taught me that I need not always repress myself in the presence of non-family members. At times, I incorrectly demonstrate compassion, such as when I extended a hand of friendship to Terra at the first sign she might be injured, but I am learning, friend Robin."

"You're okay, then?"

"Now I am. Now that we are all safe. Earlier, however, I was not." Starfire leaned back against the wall and stared straight ahead of her. "I have not felt that helpless since Slade took you away from us the last time, and I—" she paused, sniffling.

Robin tugged on her glove to pull her in for an awkward sidewise hug, and she rotated to grasp him more fully.

"Shh, shh, it's alright," Robin whispered in her ear.

"I feared I would never see you again, because you couldn't call for help because I had your communicator because I had lost mine because—"

"Hey, hey Star you didn't do anything wrong, do you understand me?" He pulled away from her and looked her in the eye.

"You found me. You saved my life."

"Raven saved your life," she corrected him.

"You both did," he conceded.

She smiled weakly.

"Can I ask you something?" He said, changing topics.

"Yes," she answered, still leaning on his shoulder.

"There's one thing that doesn't make sense to me about what happened today: how is it that you can fly through space without an air tank, but you almost drowned when Terra—when she—"

"Attacked?" Starfire finished for him. She looked away, in the direction of the alleyway she'd come through earlier. "Air is as vital to Tamaranians as it is to humans, but like the Kryptonian Superman, we have a substantial lung capacity. When Terra did the knocking out of me, I could not hold my breath, and so I almost drowned." She flashed him a shy smile. "Until you saved me."

"But that doesn't explain how you survived in space for days at a time when you left Earth without a spaceship during your transformation," he pointed out.

"I made frequent stops, from planet to planet," she informed him. "And without the friction of Earth's atmosphere holding me back, I could fly at the speed of light, which made it easy to travel to other planets in search of a new home. At the very least, I could take advantage of a breath of fresh air."

"Good to know."

"Please, how is the healing coming along?"

"Slowly," he sighed. "But I should be good in about a week."

"And then we can defeat Slade and take back the city?" She whispered excitedly and clasped her hands together.

Robin's face crumpled. "I hope so," he replied, and placed a cold, ungloved hand on Starfire's forearm.

"Robin!" She scolded him, "You are freezing!"

"I am?"

"Not literally," Starfire admitted, "but I believe that is the appropriate expression to describe the state of one who is not sufficiently warm."

"I'm not that cold, Star," he laughed.

"This is the nonsense," the alien woman disagreed. She stood up and retrieved some of Cyborg's firewood—specifically a rotting chair and half of the matching table—and deposited it a body length away from Robin. She summoned some righteous fury and focused on a chair leg, heating its base where she held it until it sprouted a merry green flame which quickly spread to the other wooden pieces.

The fire created dull, verdant light and casted weak shadows onto Robin's pale skin.

He laughed lightly.

Starfire cocked her head to the side. "What inspires this spontaneous episode of mirth, friend?"

"You just look like Beast-Boy's older sister in this light."

Her jaw dropped at the comparison, and he rushed to elaborate, suddenly panic-stricken. "No, no, no, no, not in a bad way—I mean, you'd still be beautiful if you had green skin," he brushed his fingers lightly down her cheek. "Or if you were related to Beast Boy," he mumbled.

"And you look like a _gribble kak meerim_," she said with a giggle.

"Hmm?"

"It would be the equivalent to 'little green man.'"

"Oh. Is that a short joke?"

Suddenly it was Starfire's turn to blush.

Robin let loose a grin and Starfire smiled in relief. "I'm just kidding."

They heard rustling and the buzzing of the fluorescents stirring and turned to see Beast Boy, bleary-eyed and yawning, stand from his selected spot a couple dozen feet away.

"I am sorry, friend," Starfire whispered to the changeling. "Did we awaken you with our self-amusement?"

"S'alright," he yawned. "I haven't been able to sleep anyway. 'Sides, the fire needs more table legs or somethin'." He shuffled off to the wooden refuse pile.

Starfire turned her attention back to Robin. "Perhaps we should begin our sleep cycles," she said and released a yawn herself.

Robin mirrored her with a wide-mouthed gape that cracked his recently broken jaw. "Ah," he winced, his good mood visibly dampened by the pain. "Yeah, we're gonna need our sleep—we've got a lot of work to do in the coming days."

She signaled her agreement, her expression sober once more.

"If only I could get comfortable," Robin said with a light grin, somewhat disappointed by the prospect of more sleep. "I should've at least made sure we stocked enough pillows."

"Ah," she gasped, excitement alighting her features. "I shall be your pillow and your comfort!"

"Oh, no, Star, I didn't mean for you to—."

"I am aware, Robin, but that does not mean I cannot help," she said and moved into a crouch. "Move forward," she motioned. "Carefully. A successful sleep cycle is conducive to healing, and Raven cannot be permitted to do all of the work herself."

"Yeah, I know, but—" Robin protested weakly, already easing himself into a sitting position.

Starfire crawled behind him, her back against the tunnel wall and her knees tucked up and to the side. "Now lean back," she instructed him.

Still grumbling quietly, he allowed himself to be held against her chest.

_"Ok, this is nice," _he thought, grateful Starfire couldn't see his blush.

Starfire wrapped her arms around him, mindful of his scrapes and fragile bones. _"Then again…"_ He flinched anyway, an instinctual reaction to the sudden, all consuming closeness of another person after years absent of physical touch.

"Did I hurt you?" Starfire asked, freezing.

"No, I just hit a bruise is all," he fibbed.

Starfire started to run her hand along his chest gently, her fingers brushing with a butterfly's force.

Surprising himself, he started drifting off almost immediately, lulled into relaxation by the warmth of the fire and its rhythmic crackling, sounding in sync with the leisurely circles Starfire traced over his chest.

"Are you gonna sleep here?" He whispered, his words slightly slurred.

She giggled. "Of course not. On Earth it is inappropriate for unmarried members of the opposite sex to do the falling asleep together, is it not?"

"S'right," he murmured.

"I will leave when you have fallen asleep, have none of the worries."

"Kay. S'long as you don't wake me up," he joked.

She switched her attention to his hair, still matted with blood. "You will not even know I have left."

"Good," he agreed, and unconsciously snuggled into her.

Time passed, and Starfire slowly began to feel sleepy again, her anxieties calmed by her proximity to Robin, whom she'd never seen so tranquil. _"Relaxed like this, he finally looks his true age," _Starfire considered, reflecting on how his usual serious and formal countenance made him seem decades older.

Robin twitched in his sleep and Starfire paused in her stroking, hopeful she hadn't woken up. His arm flopped behind him, almost hitting Starfire in the nose. His hand groped for something, slowly, before finding her wrist and grasping it, contented once more.

_"Perhaps he was seeking his bo-staff?" _she reasoned. _"My wrist is the appropriate shape."_

How was she going to extricate herself now? _"I will wait for Beast Boy to return,"_ she decided. _"He may be able to aid me."_

He didn't, and Starfire slipped into slumber with the Boy Wonder still sleeping on her chest.

**Confession: I don't know if Starfire has Kryptonian lung capacity, but her biology is similar enough to humans that I figure she has to be able to breathe (also, she's humanoid, not a tardigrade) so that's what I came up with. That doesn't explain how she can talk in space in the episode "Troq" because space doesn't allow for sound, so I will simply attribute her successful communication with the ship to plot physics, that concept upon which lazy and/or children's writers draw inspiration to conveniently glaze over insignificant (read: inconvenient) problems caused by not adhering to the basic laws of physics. Yes, I am attacking a children's show about superheroes for not being realistic.**

**Also, to make up for my prolonged absence, I intend to have the next chapter published before the end of the week. AND GET READY, Y'ALL CAUSE IT'S BBxRAE TIME!**

**After that, it's a simple hop skip and jump away to the finale, set for chapter 12.**

**I'd like to do a Part II, but I need to know two things: should I post it separate to this one or keep it going on the same story; how soon do you want it, cause I intend to take a break to work on some other things-the question is for how long.**

**Thanks for reading, now please, tell me your thoughts!**


	11. Chap 11: Questioning Cuddles

**Hey look! I'm updating twice in three days! Consider it a reward (if you actually care enough) for such a long wait for the last chapter. I dedicate the following chapter to SailorSea, my first, most frequent, and most supportive reviewer-please enjoy the much anticipated BBxRae fun moments.**

**And to Robstarforever2017, thank you for your kind words on the last chapter, but you might just want to skip this next chapter after Robin says his piece. I understand you want to keep a central focus on one pairing, but this story isn't just about Robin and Starfire, it's about all of the Titans-although I promise future stories will deliver the RobxStar-ness of your preferences!**

**Without further ado...**

****_Rock Your World, Chapter 11_

Raven woke up warm. _"Weird."_

She recalled falling asleep, recalled pulling her cloak around her to keep the cold at bay, recalled wishing she could sleep closer to the fire and simultaneously rejecting the idea because she knew her teammates' emotions would keep her awake regardless of their slumbering statuses. Cyborg's guilt, Starfire's worry, Robin's fury and Beast Boy's grief-she couldn't handle it, so she'd forsaken the fire's comfort for a spot of damp wall and freezing, hard ground far from the clamor of unrestrained emotion.

_"Freezing? Hard?"_ she remembered groggily, noting her current state of warmth and the softness that wrapped around her waist, securing her in a comforting embrace. _"Except...stone walls don't do that."_ Unless they were controlled by Terra, but Raven knew that if the geo-kinetic traitor was involved, that stone would have been around her neck.

Raven gripped the force holding her, "an arm," and followed it back to a lean torso, "spandex?" She trailed her fingers up to a chest, willing herself not to panic, until she reached a neck, a jaw, and finally, past a pair of gently smiling lips to a protruding tooth. Or more specifically, a fang.

_"Beast Boy."_

As if on cue, the trickster changeling-who definitely had not been there the night before-chuckled in his sleep, a deep, throaty sound she'd never heard from the immature prankster before.

He pulled her tighter to him and the shocked part of her that had been late to react gave way to Rage.

"Ahhh!" she yelled, and tried to scramble away.

"Ahhh!" Beast Boy repeated, frightened awake. Instinctively, he wrapped his arm even tighter around the struggling sorceress's middle.

Raven rotated toward her unknowing captor and their eyes met, prompting more yelling as the two sprang apart, twin looks of surprise on their faces.

TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

Cyborg woke up to a haze of harsh fluorescent lights and the sound of screams all around him. He heard BB and Rae first, which woke up his human half, but his robot side was slow to respond due to his low battery, and forced him to rely on a slow reboot.

"What's wrong-gah!" Robin called out.

"Robin!" Starfire's concerned voice rang.

Cyborg struggled to raise his head and spotted his now-standing leader clutching his ribs and grimacing as the suddenness of his movements caught up with him.

"Wha's up?" Cyborg asked, his words slurred. He looked from the wincing Robin, to Starfire, gazing up at him from a space on the floor directly beside him-_"she got there fast_"-to Raven and Beast Boy lying next to one another by the tunnel wall. His eyes settled on Raven, breathing heavily and detangling herself from her cloak.

"Calm down," the empath ordered everyone. "I had a nightmare is all," she explained, then whisked herself and Beast Boy away in a swath of shadow.

TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

Robin jumped forward as Raven and Beastboy disappeared to parts unknown, and the pressure from the impromptu leap settled on his fractured femur. He yelped from the sharp pain and collapsed to the ground, though he was saved from a complete face-fall by a surprisingly gentle catch from Starfire.

"You all right, man?" Cyborg asked as Starfire lowered the bandaged Titan to the ground.

"Will be," Robin answered shortly, glaring at the spot where his friends had just been. "Once Raven explains why she disappeared on us like that. Doesn't she know she can't just do that with what happened yesterday?"

"It was something weird, that's for sure." Cyborg said. "Ah, now that's what I'm talking about!"

Robin heard a faint humming sound and watched Cyborg's metallic side come to life, briefly illuminated by a soft blue glow.

"Something happen between those two that I don't know about, by the way?" Cyborg asked, returning to the topic at hand.

Robin exchanged a glance with Starfire. "I didn't see anything," he answered. _"I was too busy trying to make sure no one saw me and Star-which was comfortable,"_ he admitted to himself as his cheeks heated, "_but hardly appropropriate."_

"Perhaps Beast Boy played the prank on her?" Starfire offered.

Robin shrugged. "Doubtful. I don't think even Beast Boy would demonstrate that kind of poor judgment." But what could it have been?

TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

Raven deposited Beast Boy on the tunnel floor some 300 yards from the Titans make-shift camp. He fell roughly to the floor with a yelp and rubbed his bruised behind gingerly.

"What was 'zat for?" He asked bitterly.

Raven phased up from the floor, her four eyes glowing a murderous red.

Beast Boy gulped audibly as his defensiveness gave way to fear.

"I could ask you the same question," she hissed in the multi-toned voice that signaled Rage had overwhelmed her.

"Whoa, Rae, calm down. We can talk about this," the changeling pleaded, his hands raised in a placating manner in front of him as he backed up to the wall.

"You can be certain of that," the wrathful Raven whispered threateningly. "Once I've taken the price of your offenses out of your hide." She shot forward to close the distance between them, and though her feet remained tethered to the ground, her torso stretched to meet him until he could smell the sulphur on her breath.

Beast Boy grasped his behind. "My hide?" he repeated worriedly. Tendrils of black flurried out from beneath Raven's cloak to block the fluorescent panels. "Look, I know the thing with Terra has all of us rattled, but you can't let that make you lose control."

Raven receded back, her burning eyes extinguished and the shadows diminished. "Beast Boy," she whispered in a horrified, singular-toned voice. "I-I-I'm so sorry. Did I hurt-?"

Beast Boy blinked, shocked by the sudden change in disposition, and a more than a bit weary. "Is this one of those things I shouldn't question too much?"

She ignored his question and turned away from him with her shoulders hunched and her hood drawn up tightly.

He tried again. "Hey, it's okay." He reached out for her, but she drew back from him and pulled her cloak closer. "I'm sorry," she mumbled in a horrified voice, then started walking away, her gait uneven, first slow, then fast. "I lost control." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "I'm not allowed to lose control-not allowed-but that's twice in less than twenty-four hours," she said, more to herself than Beast Boy.

"What?"

She faced him with a look of surprise coloring her features, her mouth and eyes open wide, almost as if she'd forgotten he was there.

"Never mind," she muttered. She did a quick heel-turn and made to stalk off.

Beast Boy grabbed for her, but Raven shot forward, out of reach.

"I need to leave," she said in her usual detached monotone.

Beast Boy lunged ahead. "Rae-Raven, wait!" He called, his hand outstretched but not touching the indigo cloth mere inches in front of him.

The sorceress stopped short and Beast Boy clumsily stumbled on the back of her heels. She whirled around. "What?" she demanded, all traces of her earlier repentance and shyness replaced by the hard edges of impatience and defensiveness.

"Can you just stop and talk to me for a second?" he asked.

"I have to check on Robin," she said, and moved past him without making eye contact.

"You're going the wrong way," he pointed out.

"Fine." She did a quick about-face and shoved off in the opposite direction.

"Would you just-just stop being selfish?" He stuttered exasperatedly.

She stopped and hunched her shoulders. "Excuse me?"

"You-" Beast Boy squeaked. He cleared his throat. "You heard me. I said you're being selfish. You can act like you're not totally twirked right now, but you just admitted that this-this-" he gestured wildly as he searched for the appropriate phrasing, "the freak out from a few minutes ago is the second time in like, a day that you've gone all demonic-"

Raven sucked in a breath at his poignant, though hopefully coincidental, wording.

"-With the four red, glowy eyes and the freaky, flowy cape. Now you want to run away instead of dealing with it."

"I handle my emotional quandaries differently than you," she snapped. "That doesn't mean I'm running away."

"When you act like nothing's wrong? Yeah it does. Do you remember what happened that time we all watched the latest Wicked Scary, when you acted like nothing was wrong and turned the Tower into a haunted house? Cause I do, and I know you know we can't afford any more explosions, shattering glass or creepy crawlies coming out of the shadows and grabbing us." He met her accusatory stare with one of his own, his expression resolute as he moved to block her path.

"I'm not scared," she said simply.

BB pulled at his hair in frustration. "Yeah, you are Raven, you're scared of a lot of things. And after what you've been through, who wouldn't be? You took on a former teammate who tried to kill you, then wandered around Jump for hours, alone and wondering-worrying-if your friends were dead. Then we found out Robin got hurt really bad, and you can't tell me you weren't scared-even for a little while-that he wasn't gonna make it. Then there's the fact that Slade's running around our city with Terra as his right-hand, putting in place whatever take over the world plans he might have with no one to stop him.

"Oh, plus whatever happened this morning," he added off-handedly.

"You startled me is all," she retorted evasively. "Were you trying to...snuggle with me?" she eyed him speculatively.

Beast Boy gulped and lost his confident demeanor, his apologetic meekness making a rare appearance.

"Don't try and change the subject," he squeaked.

"You want me to answer your questions, you need to answer mine first."

Beast Boy inhaled deeply. "Last night I woke up 'cause Star and Robin were flirting louder than usual, so I got up to um-" he glanced down. "Relieve myself? Is that the PC phrase?"

Raven face-palmed. "Go on."

"Sorry-I just didn't think you'd appreciate me talking about-"

"I get it!"

"Right. And when I came back I saw you and you looked really cold-all shivering and stuff-cause you were far away from the fire and all you had to stay warm was your cape thingy." He pointed at the blue cloth at her shoulders. "I mean, let's face it, that leotard you wear-" he glanced down at her bare thighs and she rushed to cover them with her cloak. "-can't be very warm."

"So you decided to do something about it?" Raven drawled.

Beast Boy blushed and grasped his hands behind his back in an effort to appear nonchalant. "Kinda. 'Cept not the way it looked."

"Care to enlighten me?"

"You've heard of bear hugs, right?"

"Please tell me I didn't spend the night cuddling a grizzly."

"Heh, heh," he laughed nervously. "Polar bear, actually," he corrected and brought his hands to rest at his sides. "I totally expected you to wake up and, like, smack me in the head or curse me into believing I was a space princess from 'Clash of the Planets'-"

"Don't think the thought hasn't crossed my mind."

"-But you stayed asleep. I guess taking care of Robin musta really wiped you out, huh?" He chanced a glance at her, glad to see she hadn't grown any extra eyes.

"You'd be wiped out too if you'd had to fix a ruptured spleen."

"Anyway, I slithered up behind you in snake form and morphed into a polar bear. And, I might add, you immediately snuggled up to my ginormous white polar bear belly. You know why?"

"If you imply it's because I harbor some sort of hidden attraction to you that I can only act on when I'm vulnerable or asleep then I will transform you into a monkey and make you eat your own tail."

"No!" Beast Boy blanched. "Geez why are you so violent this morning?" he grumbled, then cleared his voice. "I was gonna say it was cause you were super cold you and couldn't pass up the chance to get warmer, so obviously I did the right thing." He focused on something in the corner of his vision to avoid looking at Raven. "And I might've joked that your sleepy self is more open to physical contact-" he gulped as Raven growled, then he pulled at his collar, "but clearly you're not in the mood for humor, so I'll just keep my mouth shut."

"Good idea," the sorceress said with a glower.

"Your turn?" he probed hopefully.

"What do you want to know, exactly?" she asked wearily.

Beast Boy appeared thoughtful for a moment. "What happened with Terra yesterday?"

TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

With the green-skinned boy's simple question came a flood of memories.

_"Come on, Raven," _Terra asked from the back of her mind._ "What stinks the most? That I tricked you? That I nearly wiped out your team? That everyone liked me better than you?"_

Raven pursed her lips. _"How much to tell and how much to hold back?"_

"I beat Overload pretty easily, which already seemed suspicious since it took Cyborg and I together to take him down the last time, but before I could leave, she showed up. She pulled dirt in though the facility's water, which emerged from the other end as mud. With that much material, her limitations were only restricted to her imagination." _"Like that stupid dirt chicanery she made of my head." _"I'd like to think I put up a good fight, but Terra-she-" Raven struggled for the description.

"She knew which buttons to push, didn't she?" Beast Boy finished for her.

_"Myah, myah, myah,"_ Terra and her chicanery mocked. _"Anger is pointless. And you're calling me a liar?"_

Raven nodded.

_"Beast Boy told me all about your temper tantrums."_

"I lost control. At first it actually helped-my Rage galvanized me, made me stronger, but strength without direction is dangerous, and in my case, ineffective. I...recovered my self-control, but I was too distracted to defend against Terra's next move."

"What'd she do?"

"She tried to drown me. The mud was so deep we could have swum in that room. And she used it to pull me down and hold me there-" She clamped her mouth shut to stop herself from confessing the part of the tale she'd rather keep secret_: "After Terra pulled me under, I stopped fighting. I laid there on the cement floor, willing myself not to move, knowing that if I died right then and there I'd be saving an entire planet from Trigon."_

Raven couldn't tell that to Beast Boy, though. _"He might seem sympathetic to me now, but if he knew my destiny, he'd wish Terra had killed me, keeping my father from ever entering this dimension."_

"How'd you escape?" The changeling asked, his voice tense as if she'd been telling a suspenseful story that hadn't resolved itself yet.

_"I remembered that my friends were in danger, so I cut the martyr crap and left to find all of you."_

"I used my last lungful of air to chant my mantra and teleported outside, then watched her from a window until she started to drain the floor. When she sucked it back through the pipes, I teleported back so she could see me, looking like a drowning victim."

"Why didn't you just go incorpor- intangi-" Beast Boy snapped his fingers, exasperated as he stumbled on the unfamiliar words. "And then leave?"

"First off, I couldn't let her see I'd escaped—she would have just come after me again. Secondly, I can't breathe in my soul-self form, and I needed fresh air."

"You can't breathe in your soul...whatever? Why not?"

"Magic has consequences, Beast Boy. For everything I do, there is a cost; I might be intangible in my soul-self form, but I'm still human," _"mostly,"_ "so my brain needs oxygen to function. I could have gone incorporeal, but I would've suffocated just the same as if I'd stayed beneath the mud."

"I guess that makes sense," he said, bobbing his head up and down. He stopped suddenly and looked her straight in the eye. "What's the consequence to healing us?" he asked, surprising her.

"Huh?"

"If everything has a downside, that includes your all-nighter healing Robin, plus every bump and bruise the rest of us have ever had you take a look at. So what price do you pay for it?"

"It doesn't matter," Raven replied quietly.

"How do you figure that?"

Her reply came out sharper than she intended it to. "Because whatever price I pay to keep my friends safe, it's worth it. It doesn't kill me, and it keeps you-all of you-alive. That's enough for me," she said sharply.

Beast Boy pursed his lips, hiding his fang, probably contemplating whether or not to press her. Ultimately he decided against it. "What happened next with Terra?"

"Well, she laughed when she saw me; she was so proud of herself." _"And she gloated to Slade in her earpiece, 'and to think Beast Boy thought she was the most powerful Titan.'"_ "Then-for what I can only imagine was for the sake of drama-she ripped a hole in the ceiling and took off to join the other flying monkeys_." "And the falling debris almost crushed me-until I ghosted back into the ground."_

"Rae, that's awful," the changeling whispered, and put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

She shrugged away his touch, shook off his sympathy.

"I survived, didn't I? And anyway, it couldn't have been any worse than what you, Cyborg and Starfire experienced-and it's definitely not as bad as what happened to Robin."

"I guess," Beast Boy agreed half-heartedly. "Sounds like she took it easy on me, to be honest."

"How so?" Raven questioned.

He averted his eyes. "Terra knocked me and Cy into a crack she ripped into the ground, closed it back up and took off. She left us for dead, sure, but she didn't actively hurt us."

"Is that all she did?" Raven asked, sensing apprehension in her companion. "She didn't say anything to you?"

Beast Boy sucked in the fang that normally stuck outward and bit his lip. "Nothing worth repeating," he replied firmly.

Raven dipped her head in understanding. "Ok, then."

Beast Boy fidgeted nervously, sensing an end to the conversation. He clenched his fist, released it, then smiled back up at her. "Good talk there, Rae," he beamed, despite the waves of despair that continued to emanate from his aura. "I really think this experience's brought us closer. We should talk like this more often."

Raven took a step backward. "The moment's over, Beast Boy, let's head back to the others."

The changeling exhaled in notable relief. "Sounds like a plan."

They headed as one back toward their inevitably concerned friends, both feeling considerably calmer.

"And Beast Boy?"

"Yeah, Rae?"

She kept her voice completely non-threatening. "If you ever tell anyone about what happened this morning, I'll skin you alive and wear your hide as a pair of leather boots."

"Got it, Rae," he replied cheerfully.

**Alright folks, we're one chapter away from the finale of Part 1. Are you excited?**


	12. Chap12: Speedy Support

**Good evening all! Alright, things in my head canon have taken a turn for the complicated, so it's taking me longer because I want to make sure I resolve any logical fallacies I might have accidentally written into the story. But here's the next installment.**

**Oh, yeah, and I expect at least a couple more chapters before I wrap things up. Thanks and enjoy...**

_**Rock Your World, Chapter 12**_

Robin watched as Cyborg paused from eating his canned baked beans to steal yet another look at his built-in computer. The bionic teen's mouth set into a grim line at whatever he saw, and he shook his head in consternation.

"How much power do you have left?" Robin asked from his cot a few feet away from Cyborg's.

"Thirteen," Cyborg answered in a worried voice.

"We need to get you to a charging unit soon," Robin said.

"Too bad the closest one's un-usable," Cyborg grumbled.

"Do we not have auxiliary stations set up elsewhere?" Starfire inquired from her spot beside Robin.

Robin looked uneasy as he answered her. "Yeah, but they'd be difficult to get to, and who knows who's watching them."

Cyborg slammed a metallic fist against his knee. "Man, when are you going to get it through your head that Slade is not omnipotent? Stay out of the Tower because it might conceivably be watched, fine; stay out of the city because Terra or Slade might see us and come back for round two, okay; but ignoring our other options because you're scared Slade might A.) know where our other bases are and B.) have somehow hacked our security to monitor them is absurd."

"He hacked into the Tower," Robin pointed out.

"Only 'cause Terra gave him keys to the front door!"

Starfire placed a hand on Robin's knee. "Cyborg knows more about the bases than anyone else," she reminded him in a placating tone. "Surely he would be the best judge of their safety."

Robin took in a deep breath before responding. "I know, I'm just a bit jumpy after what happened. What if he has some kind of an alert set up to inform him when someone enters the premises?"

"I can do a sweep of electrical signals to determine that once we're close enough. As for any external monitoring, Slade would have had to set measures up individually 'cause they'd be no way to watch 'em all at once. The power grids, security systems, servers, etc., are all completely separate from the Tower, for both geographic and security reasons," Cyborg answered, calmer than before. "I know you're worried, Rob, but we can't stay here forever. You and Raven need a proper place to recuperate. Starfire needs the sun to re-energize to her full capacity, and I need to charge back up or y'all will have one heavy robot on your hands. Even BB could use some fresh air; it's killing him being underground-probably reminds him of you know who."

Robin brought his thumb and index finger up to the bridge of his nose for a moment, his faced tilted downward and his elbow resting on his knee. After a few seconds' contemplation, he looked back at his second-in-command. "Okay. As soon as Raven and Beast Boy come back, we'll debrief, and then we'll take off for our Southern base."

"Well alright," Cyborg said with a smile.

Faint rustling in the distance caught the attention of the three heroes, and they all looked in the direction of the noise as the fluorescent lights in the distance hummed and activated in response to the movement.

"Our friends," Starfire exclaimed, and floated upward.

"Hold on, Star," Robin said, and gently wrapped his fingers around the ankle of her boot, which hovered at his eye level.

Under the bright scrutiny of the fluorescent lighting, Robin soon made out the forms of Beast Boy and Raven, and released his light hold.

Starfire bounded forward and spun once around her teammates like an enthusiastic hummingbird before returning to her seat. "Friends! I am so glad you are unharmed, you worried us with your sudden departure."

"Everything okay?" Robin asked, looking at Raven.

Beast Boy answered for the sorceress. "Better than ever, boss. Rae and I just needed to work out a little misunderstanding about boundaries."

Robin opened his mouth to request an elaboration, but Raven cut him off.

"You're not going to want to continue this conversation," she advised him, her eyes shining with power.

"Got it. None of my business."

Raven and Beast Boy sat down beside Starfire, completing a pentagon with Cyborg at the point. "Thanks," Raven replied tonelessly. "Did we miss anything important?"

"No," Robin answered. "We were waiting for you to debrief."

"Actually, we were waiting on y'all to eat breakfast," Cyborg corrected. "Check this out. Hey Star, you ready?" He handed the alien in question two unopened cans of food, one labeled 'Spam,' the other 'Beets.'

"I am," Starfire answered brightly, and took the proffered food items. She pierced the tops with her thumbs as easily as if she was popping bubble wrap, then her eyes and fists started to glow and steam rose from the newly created holes. With a cheerful smile, she peeled back the lids in their entirety and passed the cans to Raven and Beast Boy.

"Cool," BB exclaimed. "But did you have to pick beets, man?" He asked Cyborg.

"It was either that or spam," Cyborg replied, then stuck his tongue out at the vegetarian, but handed him and Raven spoons just the same.

"Whatever." Beast Boy told him then turned his attention to Robin. "What's that debriefing thing you wanted to do?" repeated Beast Boy, "Does that have something to do with taking off our underwear?"

Raven paused from eating her spam-a distasteful look on her face as she regarded the processed meat-to smack the changeling lightly up the backside of his head. "Not 'de-brief'. 'Debrief': a recounting of our various encounters and/or gathered intelligences. In this instance, probably regarding Terra and the last 16 hours or so."

"Exactly," Robin confirmed. An alert sounded from his communicator and he pulled it out, staring at it quizzically and with slight trepidation.

"Dude! Answer it!" Beast Boy exclaimed.

Robin narrowed his eyes at the impatient boy. "What if it's Slade?"

"I've closed the Titan link off to outside sources," Cyborg assured him. "And Terra left her communicator behind the night she betrayed us, so unless he found the one Star lost in the river, Slade does not have access to the Titan link."

"And we must surface eventually," Starfire added softly, and placed a hand on his forearm. "We cannot pretend to be deceased forever."

Robin nodded sharply. "Audio only," he said. "No one speak until we've acquired positive confirmation that it's an ally." A round of agreements sounded. "Got it, Beast Boy?"

"Yeah, man, you don't always have to single me out," Beast Boy answered bitterly.

"Better safe than sorry," Robin muttered, and accepted the call before Beast Boy could retort, screened without video.

"Robin?" a familiar voice called frantically. "Anyone? Titans? Is someone there?"

Something clicked in Robin's memory. "Speedy?" he asked cautiously.

"Robin!" The archer cried in relief. "Oh man, you're alive!"

"Tell us something we don't know," Cyborg joked.

"Cyborg? Is that you?" Speedy asked, his voice growing higher in pitch.

"Don't forget about me," Beast Boy shouted from across the group.

"Hey, my little green man, what's happening? And why can't I see you?"

Robin slid his fingers along the comm's side and Speedy appeared in full regalia, his bow and arrow slung expertly along his back. "Security measures," Robin responded tersely.

Speedy nodded in understanding. "I got 'cha-from what I hear, someone's been gunning for you and your team hard, so I can understand your paranoia."

Robin raised a brow. "I take it that news of our ostensible deaths has travelled outside Jump already?"

"More like outside the nation."

"Please," Starfire interjected. "This is the Speedy from the Tournament of Heroes in which the three of you participated a few weeks ago?"

"Why yes, I am," Speedy answered in a smooth voice, his attention now at Robin's shoulder where the Tamaranian woman hovered for a better view. "And you are?"

Raven plucked the comm from Robin's open palm, an expression of annoyance furrowing her brow.

Beast Boy saw the look and snatched the comm from her, then pointed the screen toward the women. "Short, dark and dreary on the right is Raven, and Miss tall, bright and cheerful is Starfire."

"Ladies," Speedy acknowledged them with an incline of his head and an unconscious retouching of his hair.

"Alright," Robin grunted and swiped his comm back. "If you're all done playing hot potato with my communicator, I believe Speedy was about to tell us how he learned of Slade's assassination attempts so quickly."

"Right," Speedy confirmed, serious once more.

"Did you know we were important enough to be assassinated?" Beast Boy whispered. Raven answered by elbowing him in the ribs, then joined the others in scooting closer to Robin and the miniature display.

"At eight o'clock this morning, Slade hacked into the live feeds of all the local news and radio stations to let everyone know he'd killed the Titans. Unsurprisingly, someone uploaded the video to the internet immediately and it went viral."

"Can you send it to us?" Robin asked. "Our resources are a little limited right now."

"Yeah, give me a second." The screen tilted as Speedy set the comm unit down, offering a view of an expansive room filled with archery equipment and sophisticated computer technology, including a laptop that Speedy started typing on.

He plugged some wires into the comm's side. "Coming at you in..." Speedy's voice trailed off and he tapped a button on the comm. The picture dissolved into black and white dots as Speedy's voice sounded again. "Three, two, one."

"Good morning, citizens of Jump City." Slade appeared on-screen in the middle of a dark room, vast, vague shapes in the background. A spotlight illuminated him from head to toe, and the camera's full body shot showed the notorious villain standing with his hands behind his back, fully armored as usual, down to the insidious mask that covered his entire face.

"You'll soon notice an absence of costumed vigilantes on your streets. But let me save you the trouble of looking for them, for the only signs you'll find of them will be with flies feasting on their decaying tongues and rodents scavenging their graying flesh." Somehow, the bronze- and onyx-colored cover in no way compromised the sound of his voice, which came through the communicator speakers as clearly as if he stood in front of the teens himself. Robin struggled not to shift uncomfortably; with everyone bearing down on him in an effort to see the screen, surely someone would notice.

"Yes, like the Greek gods of lore, I have wrested power from those Titans who ruled this Olympus." The camera zoomed in for a close-up, cutting off his chest on down.

"Who's doing the camera work?" Robin wondered.

"So, what does this new Zeus want with your city?" He paused as if for dramatic effect. "Isolation," he answered himself, speaking in that frustratingly calm voice Robin knew all too well. "Olympus is for the gods, not plebeians such as yourselves. But I am a merciful deity; I will give you twenty-four hours to complete a mass exodus before I start raining down thunder and lightning. The clock starts now, dear people. Flee."

The screen darkened, and the reflective surface showed Robin that all four of his teammates wore the same slack jawed expression he did.

"Wowzers," Beast Boy whispered, breaking the silence.

Speedy reappeared on the communicator. "You can say that again. It even caught the Justice League's attention."

"What?" Robin blurted out.

"Yeah. They're convening right now on how to handle the situation."

"But this isn't their city!" Robin protested. "The Vigilante Act that allows us to operate in Jump City un-accosted by police prevents superheroes unregistered with the city-"

"From interfering with local crises," Speedy finished for him. "I know, Rob, but this is the League, man; any action they take under the mantle of the JLA supersedes the Vigilante Act. I know this is Titan territory, but what are they supposed to do? A terrorist just took over your town and the League thinks you guys are dead."

"Well, we're not," Robin snarled.

Speedy shrugged, clearly discomforted by the Boy Wonder's aggressive tone being leveled at him, as indicated by his averted gaze and slouching shoulders. "Better let 'em know, then," he suggested.

"Robin," Starfire intoned.

Robin deflated. "We will," he said in a softer voice. "And Speedy?"

"Yeah?" the arch replied, looking back at him.

"Thanks for the heads up. We'll call you with further developments."

"No problem. And if you need place to recover, I'm sure Green Arrow would be happy to share his space."

"I'll keep it in mind. Robin out," he said, and ended the call.

Robin looked around at the faces of his teammates, searching for their reactions to the news. He read disdain in the narrowed eyes and flared nostrils of his second-in-command, but knew Cyborg well-enough to know it wasn't directed toward him. Beast Boy's slouched posture and tapping feet suggested anxiety, but his tight jaw and fierce, wide-eyed gaze showed his impatience to get active and get started. Raven put on a brave front, with her head held high and her shoulders squared, but her tightly clenched fists betrayed the tension she felt inside. Starfire's inward-leaning position and slightly parted lips showed vulnerability, but Robin knew it was an openness she only displayed in front of her friends; as soon as she sensed danger, that vulnerability would vanish beneath a fierce warrior attitude. Yes, his team was nervous, and angry, and looking for direction, but they would take on Slade no hesitation about it. They only needed leadership.

"What's next, boss-man?" Cyborg asked, a note of enthusiasm in is voice.

Robin stood up slowly. "You guys finish breakfast. I have a call to make."

"To the Justice League?" Raven asked.

"Batman, actually," he answered, and strode out of hearing distance as quickly as his nearly infirm status would allow.

**Yup, next chapter, Batman will be guest starring.**


	13. Chap 13: Dynamic Deductions

**Good evening, all. Tonight I present the finale of Aftershocks: Part 1, ****_Rock Your World_****. It's turned out to be so much larger than I originally intended it to be, but I hope that's a good thing. I intend to take a little while off before I start writing Part II, but I thank you for being with me throughout this time. Thanks for the reviews, the follows, the favorites, and thank you for indulging me in my little Titan fantasies. It's nice to know I'm not the only one whose thoughts are filled with teen heroes bounding about in spandex.**

Once Robin reached a satisfactory spot, he took in a deep breath to steel himself for the following conversation, knowing part of the difficulty would come from the fact that he hadn't spoken to his family in Gotham since the completion of the Tower. _"It doesn't help that I look like crap," _he thought, suddenly self-conscious of the tattered uniform that exposed parts of his back, chest and legs. He pulled his cape over his shoulders to hide some of the tears, but knew it wouldn't be enough to fool the Bat. With a sigh he scrolled through the contact list on his comm until he found the right number and hit 'send.'

_"Game time."_

Someone answered his call immediately, and the comm's screen filled with the lined faced of a partially bald, elderly gentlemen with a white mustache and bowtie. His features, normally calm and unflappable, took on an expression of shock as he registered the caller.

"Master R—?"

"Mask, Alfred," Robin reminded him.

"Yes of course, Robin," Alfred apologized, "I am simply astounded and grateful to find you alive."

Robin allowed himself a small smile. "I'm astounded and grateful to find myself alive too, after what I've been through."

"Well, after hearing that villain Slade's declamations and being unable to contact you at Titan Tower, the Batman and I feared the worst may have happened."

"No, no one kidnapped me and forced me to tell them all of his secrets," Robin joked wryly.

"That is not what I meant, Robin," Alfred chided him.

"I know, Al. But hey, speaking of Batman, I need to talk to him."

The old butler's eyes narrowed in disapproval. "Should I take it you disposed of the radio device that would connect you to his cowl's earpiece?"

"It's—" _"locked away in a titanium suitcase I haven't opened since I left Wayne Manor," _"—back at the Tower, inaccessible at the moment."

Alfred raised an eyebrow. "Trying to stay under the radar?"

"Never know who's watching," he explained.

"You are almost as paranoid as your mentor."

Robin shrugged. "Call it a Bat-family trait. Anyway, can you get him for me?"

"He is indisposed at the moment," Alfred said. "Justice League meeting."

"That's exactly why I called you," Robin told him, then added hastily at the butler's wrinkled brow, "Besides to let you know I'm not dead. Come on, Alfred, you're like a skeleton key—you can get to him even when no one else can."

Alfred nodded. "Expect his call soon." He hesitated. "And Robin? Stay out of trouble," he said, then put the call on hold.

"You know I can't," he told the blank screen.

TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT TT

Back at the fire, Cyborg had just finished his serving of 'Bacon in a Can' and started fiddling with some buttons on his arm console. Soft lights and sounds alerted Raven to the half-robot man's actions and indicated successful access to the built-in computer. But it was the look of glee on Cyborg's smiling features and the subtle change in his aura that told Raven he was probably up to mischief.

"Aren't you supposed to conserve your energy?" Raven asked tonelessly

"Maybe," Cyborg confessed. "But it doesn't take too much energy to hack Robin's comm and listen to his phone call."

"How much energy would it take to dislodge a cybernetic arm from half a foot inside a stone wall?" Raven castigated him over Starfire's gasp of disapproval.

"You should not listen to Robin's private calls," the Tamaranian admonished. "He deserves his privacy."

Cyborg grumbled, but ceased activity on his console with a glare directed towards his female friends.

"Privacy's all well and good in peace time," Beast Boy said, straining toward Robin in the distance. "But this is war! We need to know what's going on, when it's going on."

"That's no excuse for dropping the eaves," Starfire disagreed with a wag of her finger.

"Phone tapping is permissible under the Patriot Act," Cyborg pointed out.

"By government officials," Raven retorted through gritted teeth.

"We are government officials, technically," Beast Boy argued. "We wouldn't be able to do what we do in Jump otherwise."

"We are tolerated by the government, not paid or embraced as civil servants," Raven said, then summoned a shield of black to separate the team from Robin. At the sound of Beast Boy's complaints she dismissed him with a warning: "Don't try me," she growled.

TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

The screen came back to life without warning, and Batman appeared in the little box, standing before a wall of metal that Robin recognized from his time on the Watchtower, the space station the Justice League called their headquarters.

The Boy Wonder met the Dark Knight's stare and noticed the faintest look of surprise on his masked features. "Di—"

"Mask!" he interrupted for the second time.

"My apologies," Batman told him. "Alfred told me who was on the other line before he connected me, but seeing you after what Slade said on the video…"

"You thought I was dead," Robin finished for him.

"Not necessarily. After all, Slade didn't produce a body.

"But you called the League together anyway," he said in a flat voice.

"I couldn't establish contact with you and we needed to act. Maybe if you had called me when this all started or if you hadn't shut your link off to external lines I could've talked things over with you before I met with the League."

"I understand that," Robin conceded, struggling to contain the sense of frustration that started to bubble up inside him. "But now that we're back, you need to call them off."

"Why would I do that?"

"Because we can handle it," Robin said, slightly out of breath.

Batman stared at him in silence for a moment, and even through the communicator, Robin felt the familiar feeling of the Bat scrutinizing him, gauging him physically and mentally. Knowing it probably wouldn't make a difference, Robin pulled his hand away from his side and straightened up as best he could despite the twinge in his spine.

"Your face is still swollen, your ribs are obviously bothering you, and I won't even ask about the state of your uniform beneath your cape, but from what I can see, I'm worried. And if this is what you look like after you visited with the healer on your team then I'd hate to see what you looked like before. No, Robin, you are not in any condition to handle this right now. Stand down and let the Justice League deal with it."

"No. This is my city!" Robin yelled, losing his cool against the Dark Knight's condescending attitude. "I don't come into Gotham and take down your criminals, and I won't let you waltz in after my villain. I mean it-stay out of this, Batman."

The Caped Crusader's eyes remained impassive beneath the concealing cowl, but a muscle in his jaw twitched so subtly only a ward of the Bat could've noticed, though he kept his voice level when he responded. "'Your' city? 'Your' villain? As if you could possibly claim ownership to the psychopaths who run rampant on Jump's streets. Unfortunately for you, justice doesn't recognize property rights, Robin, it recognizes opportunity and power. Right now you have neither while the League has both. I know you're angry, I know you feel intruded upon, but there are people right now in Jump who need help, and you are in no condition to give it."

"We just need to beat Slade and-"

"And what? Can you provide comfort to the droves of people fleeing for their lives right now? Shelter? Food? Can you do anything about the last second looting that ordinary citizens are committing as they pass through the city's boundaries? How about the riots happening in the streets as people realize they're being forced to give up their jobs, their schools, their way of life?"

"Well, no but-"

"But what? Being a hero is one matter, but saving people and taking complete care of their needs is another. Right now you don't have a city to protect, Robin. You have a million refugees clamoring to make sense of the chaos thrust upon their lives, and you can't save them from that with acrobatics and a bo staff."

Robin met the eyes of his mentor, of his adopted father and former confidant, and he knew he had spoken rashly. He started to apologize, but the connection faltered, then yielded entirely to an outside force overwhelming the private line. Slade appeared again, standing in the same position as before, but with a soft, multi-colored light falling on him that made even the psychotic villain appear slightly less vicious.

"Hello once more," Slade spoke while Robin started making his way back to the Titans as quickly as possible. "I should hope that by this time, all residents of Jump City have started making their way to the corporation limits."

"Cyborg!" Robin yelled, confused as to why he couldn't see the fire. As soon as he called out, a wall of black receded into the ground from somewhere in front of him and he could see his friends clearly.

"I'm working on it, Robin," the cybernetic teen answered him. "It came over my frequency, too."

Slade continued speaking, undeterred. "So this message is for any remaining superhero types who think they can stop my plans."

"It's okay, Rob," Cyborg said. "It's just a recording. He can't hear us and he didn't send it to us specifically."

"After you hear what I have to say," Slade drawled on. "I think you'll find yourselves a mite too busy to concern yourselves with my little ghost town."

"Then why are we even hearing this message?" Robin asked.

"Meet your Gaia," Slade said, and the camera zoomed out to encompass the confident form of their former teammate standing in a spotlight of red, her surroundings faded in the dim illumination of the dusk-colored light in the background. "Just as Gaia betrayed the Titans to the usurping Zeus, so too did Terra, herself a Titan, betray her team to me by handing over their weaknesses and the key to their destruction."

"The Titan link runs off the same waves same as everything else in this town, so our frequency must have been lumped in with the hack," Cyborg answered in between Slade's pauses.

"Also similar to Gaia, Terra has a special connection with the Earth," Slade continued, and at some kind of prearranged signal, Terra's eyes started to glow canary bright, activating her geo-kinetic powers to levitate a field of rocks ranging from the size of an apple to a watermelon, all of them were topped with a smooth, black sphere covered in red, blinking lights.

"What are those?" Beast Boy asked, looking over Cyborg's arm to spy the miniature computer.

"Shh, just watch," Raven answered from Cyborg's other side.

"Terra here has extraordinary control over soil, rock, and other earthen elements. Blended with my particular taste for destruction, we tossed the Teen Titans in their Tartarus. We will also keep this city safe from invaders."

"They're bombs," Robin realized.

"Terra and I have embedded explosives of this type in the foundations of many important U.S. landmarks and buildings. Which ones, you wonder? I confess," he said with a low chuckle, "there are so many I have forgotten where I put them all. Did I instruct Terra to hide one in the nose of Abraham Lincoln on Mount Rushmore? Or perhaps it was at his memorial in Washington, D.C. I might have reached the bedrock of the White House itself, or maybe I settled for the President's residence at Camp David. And of course, not all of the bombs have been planted in places of prominence. There were a few schools and college campuses Terra and I considered as well."

"That monster," Starfire growled in Robin's ear, her head hanging on his shoulder to watch the video.

"The point is this, would-be saviors of Jump, if I become aware of any rescue attempts, assassination conspiracies, invasions or military interventions, I will not hesitate to ignite every last explosive in my control. I hope you understand me: from here on out, it's just me, my android army, and the Titans, five dead and one traitor. Think that over while you plan away in your little Watchtower."

The video ended and the image of Slade, his fists raised in defiance toward the camera, faded into a flurry of black and white dots. Batman reappeared on the screen a second later, the gunmetal gray walls of before replaced with the bewildered faces of the League's most infamous members-Wonder Woman in an excited conversation with Superman; Green Lantern, demonstrating something vaguely violent with the emerald powers of his ring; Martian Manhunter, standing calmly to the side and watching the chaos unfold around him with the interest of a kindergarten teacher monitoring a rowdy bunch of children and waiting for the best time to step in.

"Did you see that?" Robin asked Batman, who looked unphazed by the hour's revelations.

"Affirmative. I need to sort this out with the League, stand by for further instruction," Batman answered.

"Batman, wait!" Robin shouted. To his surprise, the Dark Knight listened. "Deal with the refugees, deal with the explosives, but let me-" he looked around at his team, all staring at him in rapt attention. "Let us," he amended, "Handle Slade. Look, I know I was being naive and selfish earlier, but trust me when I say this threat changes the game. I know Slade better than anyone, and we all know Terra. No one can stop them like we can. We've faced Slade before, and we came out on top-we'll do it again."

"You're still injured; your team isn't up to full strength."

"I'm the only one who sustained formidable injury, and Raven said she can have me back to normal by tomorrow." This time it was Beast Boy's turn to elbow Raven in the ribs as she spoke up to deny the Boy Wonder's claim. Robin made a silent promise to thank the changeling later.

"You told Alfred your Tower was off limits; you have no place to recuperate or plan."

"Speedy offered us the full resources of Green Arrow's headquarters."

He cursed inwardly as the Emerald Archer himself poked his head into the background of the screen. "Did I just hear my name?"

"Apparently you're the Titans newest benefactor," Batman explained dryly.

"According to who?" Green Arrow asked, indignant.

"Your sidekick."

"Okay," he sighed in mock exasperation. "Sleepover at the Arrow residence, I guess, but no parties!"

"Any other oppositions?" Robin asked, and failed to contain the smirk that distorted his otherwise serious features.

"What exactly can you do that the League can't, regarding Slade?"

"We know the city better, for starters. We have stealth where any Justice Leaguer would be blind."

"Care to elaborate?"

"You can bet Slade'll be monitoring the streets through more than just his android's eyes, and we can stay out of sight of every street, traffic, and parking lot cam he'll inevitably hack into. We also have the element of surprise on our side because he won't expect us. And like I said before, this is a game changer. There's something he isn't telling us, and knowing Slade, the bombs are just a distraction to something else. We can find out what."

"Anything else?"

Robin allowed himself a cheeky smile. "You heard the consequences if he catches anyone other than the Titans in the city; better not test his trigger finger."

Batman stared at him, silent, for a good thirty seconds. Then, "Jokes aside, you've made your case, Robin. The Justice League will leave Slade to you and the Titans." He paused as Superman made his way to him from the background, but continued over the Kryptonian's protests once Wonder Woman intercepted the Man of Steel and held him back. "But stay out of sight. If Slade sees you and punishes some college campus with an explosion then it's on you," he finished with a pointed finger, then disconnected the call.

"Dude. Did you just tell the Batman what to do?" Beast Boy asked.

"Focus," Robin demanded. "We have a mission."

"It's about time," Cyborg said, "I've had it running around with our tails between our legs."

"But what is the plan?" Starfire asked.

"Can we do anything until the Justice League finds the bombs?" Beast Boy asked.

"If they exist," Robin murmured.

"You think he's bluffing?" Cyborg asked.

"Not exactly. Well, maybe."

"Please explain your hesitation," Starfire requested coolly. "Considering we are already aware of Slade's penchant for incendiary devices, which makes his threat most plausible."

"It just seems a little messy," Robin said.

"As opposed to Slade's usually tidy method of destruction?" Raven joked caustically.

"I admit it's a stretch, but for all Slade's schemes, we've never known him to actually kill anyone."

"Hello!" Beast Boy shouted, waving his hands in the air. "He's tried to kill all of us at least twice, for starters."

"No, he threatened to kill the four of you to gain my compliance, but when it came down to it, he didn't go through with it. Not for any us. He also just released a city full of hostages. Why would he do that?"

"Now he has 24 hours of thronging streets. No one can attack him yet without risking the lives of civilians," Cyborg suggested.

"It also leaves him unopposed to do whatever he wishes in the city," Starfire added.

"And I think yesterday proves that what little mercy he may have ever felt toward us has long been abandoned," Raven reminded him.

"Our deaths accomplished a lot for him, if you think about it," Beast Boy mused. "Five heroes dead caught the whole world's attention."

"Five protectors gone leaves the city defenseless," Cyborg agreed.

"Five teens murdered shows how serious he is," Raven added.

"Five people punished restores his pride after losing his first apprentice," Starfire said.

"But that's all he needed, really. Say what you want about Slade; he isn't wasteful. He wanted everyone out of city limits for a reason, but actually killing people would escalate this situation a lot quicker, and he'd have more than the JLA to contend with. There'd be the Air Force Navy, Marines-you name it-but until he lays out casualties, he has some time.

"Time for what? Starfire asked.

"I don't know. But he has to know he can't hold this city forever. He's looking for something, and he only needs control long enough to find it."

"And now he has a twenty-four hour head start," Raven said.

"Exactly," Robin agreed. "So we should tell the Justice League to focus their bomb search on landmarks, rather than places that would lead to mass killings."

"So now you do think he did plant the bombs?" Beast Boy asked, sounding incredulous.

"It wouldn't make much sense to send the Justice League on a wild goose chase if there aren't any geese to chase," Robin said, sounding thoughtful.

"You're losing me," Beast Boy said.

"If the Justice League couldn't find any sign of explosives, they'd get restless and start thinking about taking back the city sooner than if they found an actual bomb. But I stand by my claim that he's staying away from schools."

"If you're right that would definitely narrow down the number of places the JLA would have to look," Cyborg said. "And they'd only need to find one-from there it'd be easy finding the rest."

"Why's that?" Beast Boy asked.

"Slade said he'd only detonate his bombs if the JLA and government didn't follow his instructions to be left alone," Robin started. "Which means they aren't on timers."

"So they rely on a signal from the detonator," Starfire said excitedly. "The Justice League can track those once they decipher what the signal is!"

"Yup," Robin smiled. "Once the JLA tracks down all of the bombs, Slade loses his bargaining chip, and we can take him down."

"Not to mention Terra," Raven added.

Beast Boy looked down, his ears drooping.

"I know you cared for her, B," Cyborg spoke up, clapping a hand on his back. "But now, she's just another criminal."

"And she's at the center of this. Even if we wanted to avoid her, we couldn't," Robin reminded him.

Cyborg gave the team's youngest member a meaningful look. "No more chances."

"No more trust," Starfire added.

"And no more mercy," Raven finished,

Beast Boy steeled himself, his self-pity replaced with resolve. "She's just another criminal," he repeated, looking at Cyborg.

"And we are going to stop her," Robin said. "No matter what it takes."

**End Part I.**

**A/N: Initially, I just wanted to explain how the Titans survived Terra's attacks, but now that we've followed their journey, I would also like to explore how these underdogs took back their city. Most importantly, I wanted a story that supplements the show's canon and is congruent with the history laid out for us, so please alert me of any logical fallacies or parts which contradict the show.**

**Some notes: The Titans of Greek lore predate Zeus, Athena, and all those other figures you might be familiar with from Social Studies class. Or Disney's Hercules. Cronus, the mac-daddy Titan, learned of a prophecy that one of his children would one day rise to overthrow him, so he decided to eat all of his children instead. (Just go with it.) His wife, Gaia, a Titan heavily associated with the Earth, initially submitted to his wishes, but when she gave birth to Zeus, she fed Cronus a stone (a lie, essentially) to trick him into believing he had eaten another of his offspring. When Zeus grew older, he took over Olympus in a hostile take over, freed his siblings from the stomach of his father, and ruled over land and sky. And for Gaia's part in his sibling's almost-infanticide, he imprisoned her along with the rest of the Titans in Tartarus, guarded by the eponymous god.**

**As for Slade's decision to let the people go, it comes from Terra's line at the beginning of Aftershock, Part II: "Sector 5 is all clear. It's been pretty quiet since the people all cleared out." I figured there'd have to be a reason why they're all gone. **

**The Justice League's involvement makes sense considering the significance of Slade's plan-he just took over a major city, they would have acted somehow. But the show never makes mention of them, and clearly the Titans are credited with defeating Terra and Slade. So I relegated them to 'aid' status and gave them a side mission. Sounds like a fair compromise, right?**

**Oh, and Robin's supposed to sound like a brat-he's a control freak with intense inferiority issues. He always feels the need to one-up the Batman and prove himself. So of course he reacts poorly to the news that the JLA is coming in to take over; he is a teenager, after all-he doesn't have to make perfectly reasoned decisions all of the time.**

**Anyway, t****hat's all for now, folks. So what do we have in store for next time? A visit to Star City with Speedy and Green Arrow, the truth about Slade's master plan, and more facetime with the Batman himself. Thanks for reading and check out my next fic, the truth about Red X, coming soon.**


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